In June, the European Parliament voted to effectively outlaw the sale of new cars using gasoline or diesel by 2035. If approved by the European Union, the move would revolutionise the world’s third-largest auto market after China and the United States — and hasten the global transformation of the entire automotive industry to battery technology.
What the parliamentarians didn’t mention: the world cannot mine and refine the vast amounts of minerals that go into batteries — lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, palladium, and others — at anywhere close to the scale for this rapid transition to electric vehicles (EVs) to occur.
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