The California Air Resources Board is developing regulations that ensure every new passenger car and truck sold in the state is electric or otherwise “zero-emissions” by 2035. The British government has announced plans to outright ban the sale of all gasoline and diesel-powered passenger cars—even hybrids—by 2035. Several European countries have committed to phase out the sale of gasoline and diesel by 2040. Electric cars and trucks are the future—and the future is only 15 years away.
While electric vehicles are zero-emission, they require a lot of energy in their manufacture and maintenance. One area that is getting more attention is the chemical composition of the batteries that are, literally, the life blood of the electric vehicle. Electric vehicle powertrains are much more materially diverse than the internal-combustion engine they replace. As a result, they are putting sudden and unprecedented strain on several raw materials industries, some of which are primarily located in what could be considered politically unstable areas.
One of the most crucial materials is Nickel (Ni), an essential part of the cathode in Lithium-ion batteries. Most automakers utilize Nickel-based batteries for their balance of energy and power density. For example BMW, Hyundai and Renault use variants of the Lithium NMC (Nickel Manganese) Cobalt Oxide chemistry, while Tesla uses a Lithium (NCA) Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide chemistry.
In 2019, more than 95% of new electric passenger cars sold used a variant of either NMC or NCA, as detailed in the IDTechEx report “Materials for Electric Vehicles 2020-2030.” Demand for Nickel is further amplified by the trend towards higher Nickel content in battery cells as manufacturers switch to chemistries like NMC 622 or 811 to reduce dependence on Cobalt.
Nickel is the second most expensive material in electric vehicle batteries—after Cobalt—and is also one of the most highly used outside of the battery industry. While Nickel is often not discussed as much as Cobalt or Lithium, sustainable and environmentally conscious supply is becoming more of an issue.
Most of the world’s supply of nickel is mined in the Sudbury region of Ontario, Canada. Vale is the world’s largest mine operator and produces almost 65,000 metric tons of Nickel there annually. Meanwhile, other nations are looking toward securing their share of the market.
In 2017, the government of the Philippines suspended nearly half of its Nickel mines, citing environmental concerns. Indonesia accounts for the largest supply of Nickel and in 2019 the country banned exports of raw Nickel ore to boost their domestic processing industry. Indonesia also has the most planned developments for increasing Nickel production and is set to dominate the supply chain.
Nickel is typically mined from ores that contain only a small percentage of useful Nickel, resulting in a large amount of waste material. Recently it has been announced that two Nickel mining companies in Indonesia are planning to use deep-sea disposal into the Coral Triangle for the raw material waste as they ramp up operations. Less than 20 Nickel mines worldwide use deep-sea disposal, but these new facilities would account for millions of tons of waste material each year. This method is typically used because it is cheaper than the alternatives of dam storage or converting the raw materials to useful products.
Many automakers are aware of the environmental concerns in Nickel supply and that it can undermine the environmentally friendly message of the electric vehicle. Most, including PSA, VW, and Tesla, have pledged to reduce the environmental impact of their batteries. This becomes challenging as the choice of suppliers that can meet the demands of these large automotive companies are limited.
In the future, Nickel producers will have to prove that their practices are environmentally friendly if they want to sell into the European and American markets, where the automotive industry is making this a priority. Elon Musk has been quoted as saying that Tesla would give a “giant contract” to any companies that could mine Nickel “efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way.”
As the electric vehicle market grows with the trend towards higher Nickel chemistries, IDTechEx expects the demand for Nickel from electric vehicle batteries to increase ten-fold by 2030 compared to 2019. This makes the environmentally conscious supply of Nickel a serious issue going forward for the electric vehicle market.
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