Some of the metals used to build the battery pack for a hybrid car or electric vehicle can only be mined in certain areas of the world. Is this slowing down the acceptance of the vehicles? Thank you in advance.
Dear Scott Mavers,
I totally agree the question deserves to be asked. This essentially depends on the nature of the earth metals and on new prospecting as well as the improvement of refining processes which will be less aggressive for the environment.
To get a broader idea of the question i suggest you to see links and attached files on subject.
https://www.kochvsclean.com/electric-car-batteries-truth-rare-earths-metals/
https://energypost.eu/will-toyotas-new-battery-design-solve-the-looming-shortage-of-vital-metals-for-renewables/
https://theconversation.com/electric-cars-can-clean-up-the-mining-industry-heres-how-115369
http://www.a3ps.at/site/sites/default/files/newsletter/2014/no12/EHV.pdf
Best regards
Dear Scott! I am very glad to see such an important question here. The question of EVs overall feasibility and different problems in the field concerns me as well. Even though I am an electrical engineer, I was wondering about the issues of EVs a lot. As I know, nowadays the mentioned issues are not considered as a serious stopping factor for EVs development. But it must be! I cannot say anything for sure about the issues related to harsh chemicals, but EVs batteries becoming a big issue nowadays. Unfortunately, people do not discuss widely the battery-related problems, but they are very serious, in my opinion.
It is true, that the largest mining areas of rare-earth metals are nowadays in China and in Australia. This fact makes the batteries (and thus all EVs) market very sensitive to politics. Moreover, the fact that we have quite limited rare-earth metals deposits worldwide also might be a big problem in the future. Thus, I could answer your question as "not yet, but must be soon".
It is possible to build reasonable magnets without rare earths.
https://interestingengineering.com/bentleys-new-electric-automobile-motor-designed-without-rare-earth-magnets
https://phys.org/news/2015-06-magnetic-nanoparticles-alternative-rare-earth.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/japan-just-found-a-semi-infinite-deposit-of-rare-earth-minerals
http://www.impactlab.net/2018/04/13/a-massive-semi-infinite-trove-of-rare-earth-metals-has-been-found-in-japan/
Regards,
Joachim
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