Electric vehicle supply chain

Mining these deposits presents dangers to nearby communities because of weak regulation, corruption, and environmental degradation.

These communities face human rights violations, environmental justice issues, problems with child labour, and potentially generational legacies of contamination from mining activities.

Environmental justice issues arising from the supply chain affect the entire globe, through depredation of the atmosphere from pollution byproduct.

[14] Lower environmental impacts for refining can be achieved by decarbonized electricity generation, automated process control, exhaust gas cleaning, and recycling used electrolytes.

[15] Another aspect of the pipeline, metal refining, contributes to the environmental impacts through production of electrolytes, electricity consumption, and used cathodes.

High cobalt amounts accumulate in the rest of the food chain, reaching land and air animals.

Effects of excess cobalt include lower animal weight gain and a higher birth mortality.

[9] China dominates the electric car industry, accounting for three-quarters of global lithium-ion battery production.

Japan and Korea host significant midstream cell manufacturing and downstream supply chain activities.

[1] Upstream activities (mining and processing) largely take place in countries with extractivist economies such as Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[28] International commitments reflected in the Paris Agreement have led to efforts toward a renewable energy transition as a strategy for climate change mitigation.

[29] Supply chain risks include sustainability challenges,[30] political instability and corruption in countries with mineral deposits,[31] and human rights or environmental justice concerns.

[34] Mining for nickel, copper and cobalt is causing environmental damage in developing countries such as the Philippines,[35] Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[39][40] The supply chain for fossil-fuelled vehicles is mostly petroleum (for a typical car around 17 tonnes of gasoline[41]), and can be complicated and obscure.