"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

Thursday 21st November 2024

A Battery Is Not a Panacea

You might think your electric vehicle (EV) runs because it makes electricity. You’d be wrong.   Your EV stores electricity produced elsewhere. “Where does the electricity for charging come from?” “That’s simple! It comes down a wire!” Which is connected to a big plant somewhere,  primarily coal, uranium, natural gas-powered, or diesel-fueled generators, some hydro, to be sure. So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not usually true.

Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you see? This can be up to 90% coal powered in some areas of the United States. When your EV is charging, the electricity involved is being created right that second, somewhere maybe thousands of miles away. Something gets hot, turns a generator, and the electricity that pops out goes right into your battery by being pushed by other electricity behind in in all the connecting wires. The way things get hot is we burn something to make them hot; all the electricity we use except wind generation is something getting hot. And in solar panels the thing burning is almost 100 million miles away.

It takes the same amount of energy to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.

Rechargeable batteries all contain toxic, heavy metals that store electricity chemically. The metals have to be mined in dirty, dusty, expensive holes in the ground, using big big shovels and big big trucks and very long trains. Then they have to be crushed, washed with all kinds of acids, heated to extreme temperatures, melted, mixed together, cooled and pressed into flat panels which are pressed together, and sealed in plastic containers, which are made from oil. There’s a significant environmental cost for this process, and it’s perhaps the most expensive part of the EV. An EV battery typically weighs one thousand pounds, consisting of, among other things: 

  • lithium: 30 pounds
  • Nickel 65 pounds
  • Manganese 50 pounds
  • Cobalt 30 pounds
  • Copper 250 pounds
  • aluminum, steel, and plastic 400 pounds
  • Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells

When the battery is worn out, the assembly process has to be largely reversed to bury the materials back into the earth. Batteries can also just be dumped into landfills, and the residual small amounts of electricity eventually cause the casings to crack and the toxic metals to go back into the environment. Note that landfills are at a higher underground elevation than the water table, so chemicals can access the water supply in many areas unless planning is done in advance. But the stuff goes back into the world nonetheless. Batteries are the heaviest part of the car and way heavier than the passengers. Much of the energy expended in moving the car is for moving the battery around.

Everything manufactured has two costs associated with it, embedded costs and operating costs. Every item you buy has to be produced, even if it grown. That takes a location, equipment, labor, supplies and materials, transportation of the labor, equipment, and materials, packaging, and finished goods transportation. Then there is the cost of selling it, which also involves a location, equipment, labor, supplies and materials, more transportation, warehousing, administrative expenses just to track it. There are always taxes and fees involved. Even a ripe tomato consists of most of these costs. For an EV there are many more and complex steps and costs, about the same as a regular car, with the battery costing far more, but the electrical engine having many fewer parts than a combustion engine. EV environmental cost is far higher in production. 

Comparatively, EV operating costs are lower. Here are some other factors:

  • A small EV could cost about $11.50 to $23 to fully charge while a bigger or long-distance vehicle could cost between $22.50 to $45. However, this is still a third to a half of the $amount to fill a car’s gas tank. You likely will get fewer miles from a full charge than a full tank given today’s technologies.
  • It takes several hours to charge these batteries, so driving the vehicles involves a different pattern from that of gas cars. If going on a long trip, charging strategy becomes a major factor in planning stops. This is one reason why hybrid cars and hydrogen cars are also considered to be alternatives to pur EVs. However, if you’re pretty much a commuter throughout the week and can charge frequently overnight, this consideration will not alter your lifestyle. It’s not accurate to say “what we need is a network of charging stations across the country.” We need “a network of charging stations with parks, shopping centers, hotels, and attractions” in order to give the vehicle occupants something to do every few hundred miles while they’re waiting (and paying) for the car to charge. Since there may be dozens, scores, hundreds or vehicles to serve for several hours each, where are we going to park them all? Will we have big old lots like drive-in theatres with charging stands where the speakers used to be? Hmm… maybe there’s a business opportunity looming here…
  • EVs also require lower and simpler maintenance than gas-powered cars. 
  • Part of this difference is eroded though by having to buy and install a charger, which typically requires a higher/stronger electrical circuit, installation to a charging station mounted on a wall or someplace in the yard, and a place nearby to park your car consistently. 
  • If you live in an apartment, this charger requirement likely could be show-stopper, and if you’ve got no enclosed space for the charger, it’s exposed so others can use your electricity to charge their own vehicle.

These considerations are virtually never mentioned in the tradeoff equation between gas and electric vehicles, but obviously some of them cannot be ignored; all of them impact the feasibility of adopting an EV. Particularly the charger and how to implement it represents another embedded cost that is minimally $1,000 and can run much more if new electrical connections are required.

Batteries are composed of and their manufacturing uses toxic components that come from mining. Here are some highlights from the BOM for each battery: 

  • 25,000 pounds of brine in lithium purification
  • 30,000 pounds of ore to produce included cobalt
  • 5,000 pounds of ore to produce needed nickel
  • 25,000 pounds of ore to produce required copper
  • All told, 500,000 pounds of earth mined for just one battery

Two thirds to three quarters, more or less, of the world’s cobalt comes from the Congo. The Congo mines have no pollution controls. The Congo mines employ child labor, who are unprotected while handling this toxic material. What cost of the EV should be attributed to the children lives consumed in EV battery production?

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