A short while ago I wrote an opinion piece on electric vehicles and the availability of charging points, in particular around Rye. A number of our readers left interesting comments representing both sides of the "green" argument.
Since then, there has been no change in charging points for Rye and the one hotel that wants to install them for their customers is apparently being delayed by bureaucracy and red tape. We have not heard from East Sussex County Council on the question of kerbside chargers.
It seems certain, at least at this rate, that the demand for electric vehicles is going to be stifled by the inability to recharge them at the driver's convenience; (and this is quite apart from the initial expense of the vehicle and the ridiculously low mileage - by modern standards - that many of them will do between charges).
Another question is, just how green are these electric vehicles? The only difference between them and others powered by the internal combustion engine, is that the former have a big battery and electric motor. Other than that, the construction is more or less similar, so there is no green benefit in the manufacture of the body, chassis, running gear and other components. The big advantage, we are told, is that they no longer burn fossil fuels and there are no harmful emissions.
But - and it is a big but - the lithium-ion batteries contain not fossil fuels, but minerals such as lithium and cobalt, found only in certain parts of the world and which have to be dug out of the ground. Although lithium can also be obtained from some brine pools.
Traditional lithium mines can operate 30 - 40 dump trucks of 40 tons capacity each, together with many digging and excavating machines. The dump trucks alone will use some 17.5 million gallons of diesel on top of the fuel used to excavate the lithium carrying ore. On top of that again is the cost (and amount of fossil fuel) in transporting and processing. Eco-friendly? Hardly. In fairness, it has to be said that the operators of some of these mines are looking at better and more eco-friendly ways of extraction, however it still has to be processed and transported and, like oil, it is a finite resource that one day will run out.
Another mineral used is cobalt. By far the largest source is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo - 100,000 tonnes in 2020, accounting for 70% of world production. China has a huge investment in the Congo cobalt production. The concern here is not only the environmental damage being caused by vast mines and the logistics to run them, but also that so much is in the hands of a potentially unfriendly power, whose actions could well dictate both the price of batteries and even the ability of companies outside China to be able to produce them at all. It should also be noted that the second largest producer, albeit with only 6,000 tonnes in 2020, is Russia.
The other factor with cobalt is that up to 30% (the precise figure is unclear) of the Congo's production is from unofficial artisanal mines where human rights abuses are common and where children are regularly used to burrow down deep holes too small for an adult, resulting in many child injuries and deaths. Blood cobalt is the name often given to the product of these mines, but it still goes into batteries.
And one final fact: it takes approximately 7-10 years for an electric vehicle to save enough in emissions to cover the environmental damage in its manufacture - ie to become carbon neutral. At the end of that time a great many batteries will need replacing and, often, so will the vehicles themselves. And so the eco-cycle begins again without any real advantage to the future of our planet.
