This is the problem with loose marketing terms like "green" being thrown around in regulation and politics. Service life and repair/recycle abilities are critical long term, but consumer know nothing about them in the products they buy and government money is being shoveled to the fastest production, not the actual best for the environment.
Clickbait title: You need to do more research. Much of this information is out of date, (eg. dramatic reduction/elimination of cobalt from new batteries being produced).
This video isn't wrong. Only a few companies are actually making real progress on this front. There are still an insane amount of Lithium Ion batteries that haven't been recycled.
You mean from battery chemistries like NMC-811? Yes the industry has sought to minimize the presence of cobalt in cell cathodes, but you can't get rid of it altogether. There is a limit where Nickel takes over and starts to sabotage the rest of the cell. The cell starts to eat/implode on itself basically. This video is still relevant though. Let's say 100,000 cars were made with NMC-333. If that's so, then there's 33,333 lbs (or whatever metric you want to use) mined from the earth - theoretically. If another 100,000 were made with NMC-811, then only 10,000 lbs are needed. But if we cross that break-even point of 333,333 cars being made with NMC-811, we get 33,333 lbs or Cobalt. With how EVs still take the minority in the market today, there is a propensity for then to outpace ICEVs and become the majority. Idk if it'll happen in the 2020s, but we could see 10s of millions of EVs on the road. Despite how battery chemistries and R&D changes over time, the brass tax is that the sheer number of cars still makes a difference. The points brought up in this video remain this general, and are relevant to the issues that we'll be facing with EVs for the next decades.
And the hidden environmental costs of fossil fuel cars? Such as how cobalt is constantly used in refining fuel and the energy spent to even get the fuel into the car tank. Neither is perfect but electric is the cleaner option in the long run when a new car is needed.
Thats common se se between non-retarded people(wich is not this Channel target).Basically scientists concluded that elétric cars generate less damage than oil
@@giovannip8600 I recently came to know about this issue. we need a lot energy to operate the machinery required to extract fuel. then a lot more low quality fuel to transport it to refineries by ships. lot more electricity for refining process. and then to transport fuel to stations. and each station having 4-6 motors working most the time...
And the cobalt is destroyed in refinement of fuel oil. At least it is recoverable from a battery. And 0 cobalt batteries in EVs are not that far off either.
I absolutely think there needs to be a battery standardisation that makes EV batteries easy to recycle. It shows how a lack of standards adoption leads to these issues in the first place. Governments: Should we force companies to standardise how EV batteries are made, so we don't have issues with them in our waste system? Governments: No. Years later... Governments: We should force companies to standardise how EV batteries are made, so we don't have issues with them in our waste system.
The reason for all the different methods is the growth in the lifespan and charge of batteries. It's why cell phones last longer or are able to use more power, it's why EVs get more mileage. How can you standardize the type of metals and production process, when it's constantly changing to make important improvements.
A lot of batteries and their underlying chemistries are still in flux though. 3M and Argonne National Lab still hold the patents for some of the most successful cathode materials: LiNxMnyCzO2, or NMC. Since these companies patented the variable mixtures of those elemental pairings, meaning 3M can make NMC at a ratio of 333 or 523 or 622 or the newer 811 or whatever other possible concoction, it makes it that much harder to standardize material recovery. And being how most countries in the world respect the creation of intellectual property for roundabouts 20-30 years, there's not much to do. This isn't to say that governments can't all agree to choose the best chemistry that has come out of R&D and dictate that all EVs on the planet be made with that cathode. This situation isn't as unifying as the Montreal Protocol or the Manhattan Project, so I doubt such collective action will happen. From my research, it actually seems like LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries have the greatest potential for recyclability. It's just that companies nor users have material recovery as a priority. EV companies like Tesla are still trying convince people to get on board with EVs, so there isn't much hope that thought has been put in to the total Cradle-to-Cradle cycle. Ehh, maybe not Tesla as much as Nissan or BMW or Audi. Edit: clarity
I think, a great solution is for the manufacturer of a battery type to recycle it themselves after its lifespan is over. Because they know exactly how the cell was put together so they know how to disassemble the battery efficiently to get to the precious metals, as well as how to recover and recycle specific parts to be used in new cells (like circuitry, casings etc.) if they’re undamaged.
Tax companies that make and use the batteries por unit and give a tax return for unit recovered. In Argentina normal batteries are taken back by the selling companies since is cheaper than the cost of not doing it due the law that charges them. You go to a hardware store and they take the used ones to be given to distributors up chain.
you mean when you mix several colors of a paint so well, they can just simply separate when you want to change to another color?.....but you're the one who mix it
@Roger I'm not sure what claims they're talking about, but I'd take those with a grain of salt - being able to make a battery with 95% recycled content is not the same as having 95% of your batteries being recycled. I mean its definitely a positive, not going to argue with that. But its always worth a bit of caution when companies brag about their own achievement. They rarely outright _lie_ but they're happy enough to phrase things in a way that they know will sound better than it might be in reality.
Desulphurisation Cobalt plays a vital role in catalysing the removal of sulphur from oil, contributing to a more sustainable society. The use of cobalt in desulphurisation reactions represents the highest tonnage of cobalt use in the catalyst sector.
Worth considering the use of cobalt in petrol refinement, and every other battery we use such as the one in your handset. Worth also reporting the growing prevalence of second Life batteries (from cars to homes for instance) Worth also considering the percentage of Congo cobalt from forced and child labour. I don't want to appear to be shrugging it off, but the journalist in the video gives the impression that all Congo cobalt is "artisan" mined, which was misleading and made me suspicious for the rest of the video. Completely agree, this all needs a lot of discussion
@@MollyMaidParkCities mobile/cellphone, tablet/iPad. All have batteries and make up the vast majority of kg of batteries made per year globally. The criticism about cobalt only got levelled at EVs, which suggests to me the criticism comes from fans of EV competitors (like ICE), rather than fans of the people of the Congo
At end of life, auto batteries can and should be re-purposed in homes for grid storage. American Manganese and others are making headway on the recycling challenges. On Cobalt, more is used in an ICE vehicle life (in petrol refinement) than found in EVs and battery makers are actively changing chemistry to reduce its use further in EVs.
It's funny that no one cared about cobalt when it was used in refineries. It is only when it started being used in batteries do we hear concerns about its source.
@@alanmay7929 For now it is. Lithium, nickel, and other materials used in batteries can be recycled, oil can't once it's burnt. Battery-Electric powered mining equipment will be developed as well. All short-term problems that will be alleviated in the future, unlike oil that has been effectively fully optimized and will never become less polluting. Videos can and have been made that go on for hours about the environmental costs of burning fossil fuels (which still have to be mined by ICE powered equipment too!).
Batteries that come out of cars can be reused for other things, they can be linked together for storage for houses or businesses. This is already happening and will probably spark a new business model for the future, as more batteries become available and more people want a more affordable way to a sustainable future.
@Joseph Dead They can and it's already happening. Eventually they won't be usable but that is quite away off. What is no longer useful to run a car, can and is being used for other things.
I've got nothing against electric cars, but can we talk about a tax on them to pay for upgrades to the electrical grid? We've already got rolling blackouts in California in the summer, what's the electrical supply situation going to be like when a third or more of the vehicles on the road are electric? To dump that further demand on the grid without huge improvements/expansion will be catastrophic.
Governments will continue to load tax onto oil based fuels until they have achieved the tipping point where enough people have EV's to encourage adoption. At this point governments will start loading tax onto electricity.
Thanks for covering this topic. I work in the mining industry and many people who are all for pushing green technologies don't comprehend the huge amount of material resources involved in producing those batteries, turbines, solar panels etc.
Maybe cars aren’t the best way to get around and that alternatives such as bikes, walking, trains, etc need to be strongly considered. Maybe the way we design cities and towns in the US currently is very bad for the environment and we need a total overhaul and rewriting of zoning codes, land use policy, and infrastructure initiatives.
Can't do that when you have retords saying that its communism or too much government involvement. I got this from Prague U video "war on cars", its a pure comedy but sad too to see a person with this mentality.
Cobalt is extensively used in the refining of fossil fuels. Lithium batteries from cars go on to be used in storage batteries and sometimes get a third life after that. There's a whole lot more to be said here....
@@Veryperceptivecat and with huge innovation occurring, like at the start of widespread ICE car adoption, that isn't very likely for cars produced this decade.
@@timallen643 and Lithium ion batteries are horrible for the environment. And considering how shitty they are, an EV will need copious amounts of them. Realistically, a decent option is Nuclear power for the centralized system which then powers hydrogen fuel cells for cars. Or a major innovation in battery tech.
@@awesomedavid2012 Hydrogen combustion powered vehicles are the way to go. The out put is water vapor and it doesn't take much to modify current manufacturing processes.
Maybe there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that sets itself up with 2 hour daily travel between home and work? Especially if that travel takes place as single drivers in machines designed for four or more.
Public transportation and cycling are the more environmentally efficient options and we should be developing land and roads with that in mind. Upzone cities, remove parking minimums and set maximums instead, expand bus services and bike lanes dramatically, and go full in on road diets for the roads that help promote sprawl and discourage walkability.
I think the best way to deal with the problem of electric vehicle waste is to invest in making sure all the electric vehicle designs are built around longevity. You might think “of course a car company would be building around longevity”, but that would be incorrect because ever since the 1920s, manufacturers have realized that they can make more profits by designing their goods to fail and to be hard to repair, because it forces people to buy more stuff later on. This is what happened with lightbulbs, with manufacturers forming a cartel that fines members who make bulbs that last too long, which is why there is an incandescent lightbulb that has been on in a firehouse for the last 100 years. Similar things go on with LEDs now with the AC to DC drivers being designed to send far more current through the bulb than it can handle in the long run, and it has been widely reported in car manufacturing, especially with how American cars are designed. Getting rid of this mandated waste (aka “planned obsolescence”) will protect the environment indefinitely into the future while saving money for consumers to use on everything else they are interested in buying.
Ah yes, the Bicycle...this is how the 'rest of the world' gets around. Electric cars wil primarily be a "First world" problem....That 5000 lb , 700 horsepower Tesla carrying that 265 lb overweight American male...rocketing that Tesla to 60 MPH for a brief time, driving the three kilometers to Costco...And at night, charging up at a rate that could illuminate 24 homes...insanity.
I think the easiest way to make recycling more cost effective is to decrease taxes on the recycling, and increase taxes on the usage of virgin materials, non modular and non recyclable batteries.
I'm getting tired of seeing cobalt singled out for EV batteries. Many industries use cobalt besides EV's and I watch many videos on how EV chemistries are moving away from cobalt. We also do not focus on the fact that almost any article one picks up has relied on a mining, leaching or other process for the material it contains. Don't forget that most of the energy ICE vehicles consume over their lifetimes comes from petroleum produced by fracking, another copious use of water. While I have not seen recent figures, I recall driving past significant acreage that was rendered non-arable due to leaks of retention ponds related to oil drilling and stimulation when I was young. The fact that we accept the environmental impact of the mining operations that render the material we are accustomed to in our daily lives make this type of evaluation of the potential impact seem more stark, only because we have not considered the same for those items we currently live with on a daily basis. On the balance, I do not find trying to touch on this topic in a 4:49 video very helpful. While I do not find fault with any particular statement, the lack of contrast does not provide any context. Seeker generally does better than this.
Eye opening very informative- information that needs to be widely brought forth and known to general public!!!!!! especially the part that involves child labor!!!!!!!!!!!!
What bigger problem is there than global warming? EV's are not perfect, nothing is. But they are a lot better than the combustion engine, and will continue to improve.
In a way we are, yes. But there's a big difference between them: Mining and landfills stay where you put them (assuming you're careful about groundwater leeching). Stuff we pump into the air does not. So while all this mining is indeed an environmental disaster of its own, its not a _global_ disaster. Its localized. The climate change effects we're seeing on the other hand are affecting the entire world, no matter where they're produced or used. And we can't just put the CO2 in a big box and bury it when it gets too nasty like we tend to do with nuclear waste - once that stuff is in the air its _really_ hard to get it back out. At least, to get back out anywhere near as much as we keep putting in.
The difference is that with regulations EVs are actually better for the environment. But no matter how well we regulate ICEs they will end up being more harmful then EVs long-term
@@altrag well, if you want to use that point, then most of E-waste are sent to third world countries, the most monitored an reported are the E-wastes that reach africa from so called first world countries. there people dismantle and burn the e-waste components and perform crude methods to extract precious metals which will be resold. most of these companies whoever it is will go through the cheapest route, so in the end, they do release toxic materials back into the atmosphere, but since these are not glorified so much as with oil & gas, people live with the assumption that simple laws could regulate e-waste. in my humble opinion, if it was so easy to do it and profitable as spokeperson proclaim it to be, there would be bigger steps that would have been taken and this comment is a needless counter-argument. there are people who make companies to perform noble acts, but their actions i predict would be limited by their economics, political approval and their action on whether they can provide substantial effort to practically proove even half of what they claim, without lying, projecting or lobying and coming up with straight data and actually working to solve rather than proclaiming to help while overpromising and under delivering. these are the trends with most companies these days.
Other uses of cobalt: gasoline and diesel production, high temp metal alloys used in gas turbines among other things, and magnets. Batteries are eliminating cobalt, classical fuels are not. Update please
And the manufacture of the plastic in the toys behind you? A bigger issue before BEVs. Little to no cobalt in BEVs Vs the process of oil's from ground to pump. I'm 1) not sure where you're going with this video and 2) if you understand/explaining the use potential post vehicle propulsion suitability. Batteries are already being re-used and/or up-cycled for other purposes.
Seeker, look into companies like Redwood Materials and Redivivus - they are both working on Lithium-based battery recycling without smelting them down. Presumably, recovery rates for all of the raw materials are north of 90%. I'm surprised and disappointed that you didn't mention them in your video.
If there are components of e-waste that are not cost-effective to recycle, one option is simply to gather the used items into some big repository, while better recycling methods are worked on. Just keep it out of the general waste stream.
Storage is costly as well though. It wouldn't take very long for the costs of keeping the stuff to outweigh the costs of recycling it immediately, and we're back to square one.
@@altrag But do you have anything quantitative? What does "expensive" mean? And there must be many different options for handling the storage, other than immediately recycling everything.
Even if the batteries will be fully ecological in the future, the production of electricity, necessary to power these cars, is also ecologically controversial. These cars are not as clean as they trying to show us.
An electric car actually does more environmental damage than a normal one so why are we still going forward with electric cars where as in 2011 Honda made a hydrogen car where the emission is pure H2O.
You forgot to mention that these batteries can be turned into grid batteries. There is no need to recycle a functioning battery, when you can just keep using it for something else.
We don't need to make recycling things cheaper than virgin materials to keep them out of landfills, we need to make it more expensive to just put them in landfills in the first place. Require manufacturers of things you want recycled to pay for the cost of return and recovery at the end of their life. They'll find ways to make recycling inexpensive quick.
Strange that the cobalt mining issue is only adressed since the widespread use of batteries in cars. No one batted an eye during the decades it’s been used as a catalyst in fossil fuel production 🤷♂️ Is this video sponsered by Exxon Mobil perhaps?
How about doing an analysis on petrol and diesel engines? What are the Requirements for manufacturing and disposing those once they have have spent their life cycle and are no longer usable?
Redwood recycled the equivalent of 100 tesla car battery in 2020. In 2019 tesla sold 180.000 cars. So... There is quite a gap. And that s not taking all the other brands into account.
As a general rule for Everything, if it can't be recycled, don't build it. Let's switch to electric and switch to solar, but focused on using only tech that can be 100% recycled and that have minimal harm to the planet.
Recycling is an issue faced by the solar panels too. The commercial Si based solar panels have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years only. The first panels which were installed about 25 years have started to expire. In no soon time solar panel junk is something going to be a headache.
@@gaya3ganeshh Don't spread false, pro fossil fuels info. Solar panels are already 95%+ recyclable, generally have a 25 year warranty and a product life of 35 years which is no comparison to mining oil and burning it into our atmosphere for 35 years. Electric cars are much more simple with many fewer parts making the general vehicle fabrication more environmentally friendly and battery tech is improving with leaps and bounds as we ramp up in production and batteries that are highly recyclable now should be made to be nearly 100% recyclable in the near future too.
Let's put solar panels on every home, business and covered parking rooftop and switch to electric vehicles making nearly everything we do solar powered while completely decentralizing our power supply and empowering everyone as power generation owners. Solar power is CHEAPER and electric vehicles are soon to be CHEAPER to make and already are considerably CHEAPER to maintain and operate, especially if charged from your own solar power. A 3-5 year ROI (return on investment) for a solar array that will generate power for decades is a no-brainer and the panels can even be made locally too. #EndFossilFuels #SwitchToSolar #SwitchToElectric
The same energy used to extract, refine, transport, and sell the "never going to be green" fuels, only significantly less of it for EVs over time and over lifetime of the vehicles. Spoiler: getting constantly greener, albeit sometimes quickly improving, sometimes not so quickly. Fuel oil gets less green all the time (extraction gets harder/increasing side impacts too). Research readily available today (just make sure you don't trust the stuff published by the oil&gas brigade/those with Vested Interest). Yes, greener not to have a vehicle at all... But that is not always an alternative or desirable.
If renewable energy was used at all charging stations then this wouldn't be an issue, but that depends on the location of the charging station. Still significantly less energy than it takes to create fossil fuels.
@@silk.bones.333 the balance of energy is going renewable. For instance, in the UK, the trend to renewables is now unstoppable (including saving all electricity users in the country anyway).
Gyeah but there's enough fuel in the earth to last forever, not. So let's just keep using fossil fuels with no replacement in sight so oil companies can maximize profits. Not planning for a future that you know it's coming and there is no way around is dumb. Dum da dum dum... To quote South Park.
@@Kabodanki Dictatorial? This is about saving our ecosystem... It’s an appropriate policy. Just like a lot of other policies, such as mask mandate, store closing, etc. The US has been in constant wars for centuries, that’s dictatorial. And pointless.
i have heard this, but the reality is a lot of these applies, to a lot of industries, EV is just undergoing extreme scrutiny. eventually efficiencies will kick in and improve decades from now. this is not an easy process
There is a lot of Hydrogen. But Hydrogen does not live on it's own. So accessing it is horribly inneficient. There is a reason Hydrogen is not taking off, and why EV's are now inevitable.
Great topic and glad to learn more. The batteries are definitely the one thing that shies me away from electric vehicles. I'd still choose them over combustion cars though.
@@Gabriankle People indeed have been doing something about it, but not nearly enough. People have been doing things against climate change, but not nearly enough (it finally seems to be on agendas properly to tackle it), etc. People always do stuff to prevent issues, but not enough people / barely any people in power do something about it until they have waited so long that they have no choice.
@@Kj16V daaaaaam! But I think i saw some like graphene powerbanks for an absurd price for a pb on Amazon last year, and i dident hear anuthing about it anywhere else so...
@@Alex-vf5of graphene batteries are far away from happening, but graphene batteries are a form of solid state batteries, a technology that is ready and is near production. Theyre mostly near market adoption in a few years, plus they use less rare earth materials. also graphene batteries are doable at a small scale... since graphene can only be produced at a small scale (hence the phone chargers) asofar, and even if graphene could be produced in bigger numbers,graphene is mostly an additive to already-present substances/metals just to make it more effective so its not really used as its own thing.
Should talk about where we get the electricity to charge the batteries instead, imported from China who burns coal to make that electricity, it's actually more environment unfriendly than gasolin Which is why i always dismiss these environment hippies whenever they say they own an electric car as if they are saving lives, yet don't know crap about it.
How much electric power have you ever made? If you are talking down people who are at least trying to make a difference. I make enough to power a house in Canada 100% electric the car is next.
Going green is great in theory but implementing it is another problem. When the people pushing going green than jumps on their private planes an car caravans it tells u everything u need to know.
At the end of their useful life for cars these batteries will still be useful for grid energy storage/backup. That further delays when they will be recycled.
Battery recycling should be made mandatory. Everything needs to be recycled. It is less wasteful. More companies need to make products from 100% recycled materials. This is especially true with plastic.
Another intersting aspect in electric cars is Neodymium used in the magnetic motors. More than 80 procent of this recource is mined in china and the demand is expected to greatly outgrow the suply. Moreover, looking at geopolytical aspacts, this is a critical recource (acourding to the EU % USA). Maybe an idea to do a video about this aswell, as it is almost never talked about. For papers i've writen about it I interviewed an Industrial ecologist that has published papers on this topic. He stated that he expects this te greatly limit the future production, and that car companies aren't realy doning anything to combat this problem
The Tesla charging stations at truck stops along the interstate are run by Diesel engines and probably use as much diesel as you would filling the car. 🤦🏻♂️
@@aaronburrell3729 how does this work for the 1000s of superchargers nowhere near any fuel stations? And the many 1000s of charging locations on other networks which are also nowhere near fuel stations? It would actually be harder to make EV charging stations depend on burnt fuel than to just plug them into the grid and drip-feed local batteries.
@@aidanapword someone comes by there and fills up the engine that powers the charger with diesel. There is a tank for the engine, just like any other engine.
Cost-competitive lithium recycling could be a real coup for EVs. If EV manufacturers could put a lien on a car's battery that would make sure that the manufacturer would get the battery at end-of-life for the purpose of recycling, that could make EVs substantially cheaper to the end user, both when they're initially bought and when they have to buy replacement batteries.
It doesn't help that many places don't even offer recycling of e-waste, or, charge you for it. Basically incentivizing people to just throw it away in a landfill.
@@SimonEllwood Last I checked, Europe isn't the entire planet. I also wouldn't be surprised if there are in fact parts of Europe that don't care either.
The absoulte worst thing you can do if you care about the enviroment is buying a new electric car! The best thing you can do is buy a fuel efficient used car.
Question is - who will recycle them? Car manufacturers? I don't think so. Why? Because it's way more expensive than buying new metals and materials. And once first electric vehicles end their life span - there will be hundreds of thousands of tons of batteries every year going off as e-waste. Sorry for being pessimistic - but I just don't see them getting recycled, way too expensive. Also, car battery weighs ~230kg on average - that's equivalent of over 4000 smartphone batteries. People do not realize how much more battery e-waste will come once e-cars go mainstream.
Car manufacturers absolutely will, Tesla and Volkswagon are already setting up programs to do just. Recycling will in fact play a huge role in reducing costs to manufacturers. Especially as solid state tech takes over.
Solid state battery technology should try to workout methodology to consume these Lithium cells for substrate or membrane or even for support structure so that evolution of battery tech is more green and sustainable
Hard to do since ion lithium batteries deplete with time until they are no longer capable of holding charges. So you are obliged to remanufacture them.
StorEn's Vanadium flow batteries are going to make the Tesla Power Wall obsolete. They cost less, do not suffer any degradation, can deliver 100% usable capacity over 35 years, are modular and stackable. Come in 20KW and 30KW sizes. Oh and they are 100% easily recyclable!
Instead of changing the mindset of people towards public transportation, we squabble if few cents are worth the child labor or encouraging conflicts in third world countries. Private cars are the biggest sound polluters in cities, sole causes of traffic jams and the huge road infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to green city planning.
Some time back an online group tried to shout me down when I spoke up in regards to the high cost of green tech. They would not even fact my information. However, you have outed several issues with this one video. Now wind and solar need to be really addressed, total costs from installation to final closing of sites, cost overruns are not what is being touted. Thank you
We should make clear comparisons to traditional cars. nowadays some people invalidate EVs, because it's polluting to create one, while buying a new gas car that was also just created. Certainly traditional cars are not neutral to fabricate, maybe even worse.
Funny that there's not this level of scrutiny from these youtube channels about oil drilling, refinement, transport, combustion and carbon emissions. Internal Combustion cars are magnitudes more pollutant than EVs during their life-cycle, but they are not trendy, so they don't generate as much clicks. Poor choice of subject, but oh well. Do yourself a favor and unsubscribe from these time wasting channels.
it's also important to remember whenever bringing cobalt to EV discussions that prepossessing oil to make gas is also a cobalt dependent
But it’s used as a catalyst that can last a decade and billions of gallons for a small amount.
You can just bring up the places where oil is extracted from earth, and the wars, conflicts and environmental disasters it has created...
This is the problem with loose marketing terms like "green" being thrown around in regulation and politics. Service life and repair/recycle abilities are critical long term, but consumer know nothing about them in the products they buy and government money is being shoveled to the fastest production, not the actual best for the environment.
A company called American Manganese is making real headway on recycling of these batteries
I can't take you seriously with the inclusion of the word "American"
Can you link ?
@@RAMBO14001 it’s a Canadian company btw
@@69Bassi69 it’s AMY on the tsx
@@teddygator Thanks, im eu based to not in my newsfeed atm
Clickbait title: You need to do more research.
Much of this information is out of date, (eg. dramatic reduction/elimination of cobalt from new batteries being produced).
Agreed, thank Goodness it's whiskey hour. But I fell for the bait! 🤦🏻♂️
But do you have any sources? This subject fascinates me.
This video isn't wrong. Only a few companies are actually making real progress on this front. There are still an insane amount of Lithium Ion batteries that haven't been recycled.
You mean from battery chemistries like NMC-811? Yes the industry has sought to minimize the presence of cobalt in cell cathodes, but you can't get rid of it altogether. There is a limit where Nickel takes over and starts to sabotage the rest of the cell. The cell starts to eat/implode on itself basically.
This video is still relevant though. Let's say 100,000 cars were made with NMC-333. If that's so, then there's 33,333 lbs (or whatever metric you want to use) mined from the earth - theoretically. If another 100,000 were made with NMC-811, then only 10,000 lbs are needed. But if we cross that break-even point of 333,333 cars being made with NMC-811, we get 33,333 lbs or Cobalt.
With how EVs still take the minority in the market today, there is a propensity for then to outpace ICEVs and become the majority. Idk if it'll happen in the 2020s, but we could see 10s of millions of EVs on the road.
Despite how battery chemistries and R&D changes over time, the brass tax is that the sheer number of cars still makes a difference. The points brought up in this video remain this general, and are relevant to the issues that we'll be facing with EVs for the next decades.
And the hidden environmental costs of fossil fuel cars? Such as how cobalt is constantly used in refining fuel and the energy spent to even get the fuel into the car tank. Neither is perfect but electric is the cleaner option in the long run when a new car is needed.
Absolutely agree with you bro!
Never heard of that argument before, is it really that much energy to refuel a tank though?
Thats common se se between non-retarded people(wich is not this Channel target).Basically scientists concluded that elétric cars generate less damage than oil
@@giovannip8600 I recently came to know about this issue. we need a lot energy to operate the machinery required to extract fuel. then a lot more low quality fuel to transport it to refineries by ships. lot more electricity for refining process. and then to transport fuel to stations. and each station having 4-6 motors working most the time...
And the cobalt is destroyed in refinement of fuel oil. At least it is recoverable from a battery. And 0 cobalt batteries in EVs are not that far off either.
I absolutely think there needs to be a battery standardisation that makes EV batteries easy to recycle. It shows how a lack of standards adoption leads to these issues in the first place.
Governments: Should we force companies to standardise how EV batteries are made, so we don't have issues with them in our waste system?
Governments: No.
Years later...
Governments: We should force companies to standardise how EV batteries are made, so we don't have issues with them in our waste system.
The reason for all the different methods is the growth in the lifespan and charge of batteries. It's why cell phones last longer or are able to use more power, it's why EVs get more mileage. How can you standardize the type of metals and production process, when it's constantly changing to make important improvements.
A lot of batteries and their underlying chemistries are still in flux though. 3M and Argonne National Lab still hold the patents for some of the most successful cathode materials: LiNxMnyCzO2, or NMC. Since these companies patented the variable mixtures of those elemental pairings, meaning 3M can make NMC at a ratio of 333 or 523 or 622 or the newer 811 or whatever other possible concoction, it makes it that much harder to standardize material recovery. And being how most countries in the world respect the creation of intellectual property for roundabouts 20-30 years, there's not much to do.
This isn't to say that governments can't all agree to choose the best chemistry that has come out of R&D and dictate that all EVs on the planet be made with that cathode. This situation isn't as unifying as the Montreal Protocol or the Manhattan Project, so I doubt such collective action will happen.
From my research, it actually seems like LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries have the greatest potential for recyclability. It's just that companies nor users have material recovery as a priority. EV companies like Tesla are still trying convince people to get on board with EVs, so there isn't much hope that thought has been put in to the total Cradle-to-Cradle cycle. Ehh, maybe not Tesla as much as Nissan or BMW or Audi.
Edit: clarity
I think, a great solution is for the manufacturer of a battery type to recycle it themselves after its lifespan is over.
Because they know exactly how the cell was put together so they know how to disassemble the battery efficiently to get to the precious metals, as well as how to recover and recycle specific parts to be used in new cells (like circuitry, casings etc.) if they’re undamaged.
Tax companies that make and use the batteries por unit and give a tax return for unit recovered. In Argentina normal batteries are taken back by the selling companies since is cheaper than the cost of not doing it due the law that charges them. You go to a hardware store and they take the used ones to be given to distributors up chain.
Argentvs that’s actually genius!
you mean when you mix several colors of a paint so well, they can just simply separate when you want to change to another color?.....but you're the one who mix it
@@electronresonator8882 I tried painting a wall with batteries once. Turns out batteries and paint aren't the same thing. Whodathunkit.
@Roger I'm not sure what claims they're talking about, but I'd take those with a grain of salt - being able to make a battery with 95% recycled content is not the same as having 95% of your batteries being recycled.
I mean its definitely a positive, not going to argue with that. But its always worth a bit of caution when companies brag about their own achievement. They rarely outright _lie_ but they're happy enough to phrase things in a way that they know will sound better than it might be in reality.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Hey spammers😂😂😂
"earth is round, but a ball is rounderer"
-Sugondese
This quote does not relate to this situation.
@@Joel-ee4yh it does
@@Xenos_AR who’s sugondese joe
Desulphurisation
Cobalt plays a vital role in catalysing the removal of sulphur from oil, contributing to a more sustainable society.
The use of cobalt in desulphurisation reactions represents the highest tonnage of cobalt use in the catalyst sector.
great topic..should be discussed more extensively
Worth considering the use of cobalt in petrol refinement, and every other battery we use such as the one in your handset.
Worth also reporting the growing prevalence of second Life batteries (from cars to homes for instance)
Worth also considering the percentage of Congo cobalt from forced and child labour. I don't want to appear to be shrugging it off, but the journalist in the video gives the impression that all Congo cobalt is "artisan" mined, which was misleading and made me suspicious for the rest of the video.
Completely agree, this all needs a lot of discussion
I agree with you there
@@jackwarren8498 what’s a handset?
@@MollyMaidParkCities mobile/cellphone, tablet/iPad. All have batteries and make up the vast majority of kg of batteries made per year globally. The criticism about cobalt only got levelled at EVs, which suggests to me the criticism comes from fans of EV competitors (like ICE), rather than fans of the people of the Congo
and lets discuss ICE and DIESEL deaths as well everyday
I was wondering when someone was going to talk about this. Has everyone compared the environmental damage from the manufacturing side of things
At end of life, auto batteries can and should be re-purposed in homes for grid storage. American Manganese and others are making headway on the recycling challenges. On Cobalt, more is used in an ICE vehicle life (in petrol refinement) than found in EVs and battery makers are actively changing chemistry to reduce its use further in EVs.
It's funny that no one cared about cobalt when it was used in refineries. It is only when it started being used in batteries do we hear concerns about its source.
@@tonii5690 it smells like oil-banked misinformation
@@matheussanthiago9685 what do you mean?? Are you saying that he is wrong?? Can you please elaborate as I am not familiar in this topic. 🤔🤔
Cool, now do one on ICE cars. That video could go on for hours...
Uhm nope it won't. Oil is used by ICE to mine and transport/process lithium, nickel and many other materials.
@@alanmay7929 For now it is. Lithium, nickel, and other materials used in batteries can be recycled, oil can't once it's burnt. Battery-Electric powered mining equipment will be developed as well. All short-term problems that will be alleviated in the future, unlike oil that has been effectively fully optimized and will never become less polluting. Videos can and have been made that go on for hours about the environmental costs of burning fossil fuels (which still have to be mined by ICE powered equipment too!).
@@justin_time yes oil is also burned when used to mine lithium. Also there are biofuels and fuels from recycling that have been in use for decades.
@@justin_time that oil is also used to make tires, road tar, car parts, fertilisers, drugs......
@@alanmay7929 You can get lithium out of sea water. Try to do that with y'all's favourite way of polluting the world, oil
How about the environmental costs of the rare-earth elements used in electric car motors and wind turbine generators?!
Batteries that come out of cars can be reused for other things, they can be linked together for storage for houses or businesses. This is already happening and will probably spark a new business model for the future, as more batteries become available and more people want a more affordable way to a sustainable future.
@Joseph Dead They can and it's already happening. Eventually they won't be usable but that is quite away off. What is no longer useful to run a car, can and is being used for other things.
The mining for new batteries is still terrible for the environment
I've got nothing against electric cars, but can we talk about a tax on them to pay for upgrades to the electrical grid? We've already got rolling blackouts in California in the summer, what's the electrical supply situation going to be like when a third or more of the vehicles on the road are electric? To dump that further demand on the grid without huge improvements/expansion will be catastrophic.
Governments will continue to load tax onto oil based fuels until they have achieved the tipping point where enough people have EV's to encourage adoption. At this point governments will start loading tax onto electricity.
Thanks for covering this topic. I work in the mining industry and many people who are all for pushing green technologies don't comprehend the huge amount of material resources involved in producing those batteries, turbines, solar panels etc.
Yep, some people believe that we dont need to mine anymore because the existance Of renewables
Because people are ignorant. They don't look at facts nor listen to truths.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Plato
"Color of your potty tomorrow depends on what you eat today. Eat wisely."
- Myself
Moving to an all electric society is inevitable since fossil fuels are limited.
@@Dustinavollmar where did you get the 50%? Please show where the confirmation comes from
What about cobalt, lithium etc?
@@bgtubber Well we don't combust Cobalt, lithium and so on. And so we can always recycle. But that's impossible with Fossil Fuels.
@@bgtubber You can even manufacture the batteries from other materials but you cannot reproduce the used oil again
We could possibly recycle at a rate that matches the new “dead life” turning into future oil.
Maybe cars aren’t the best way to get around and that alternatives such as bikes, walking, trains, etc need to be strongly considered. Maybe the way we design cities and towns in the US currently is very bad for the environment and we need a total overhaul and rewriting of zoning codes, land use policy, and infrastructure initiatives.
Can't do that when you have retords saying that its communism or too much government involvement.
I got this from Prague U video "war on cars", its a pure comedy but sad too to see a person with this mentality.
Cobalt is extensively used in the refining of fossil fuels.
Lithium batteries from cars go on to be used in storage batteries and sometimes get a third life after that.
There's a whole lot more to be said here....
Over the lifespan of the car, it's actually less harmful than a petrol car
That's with the generous assumption, that current electric cars will see as much use and will be as durable as IC vehicles.
@@Veryperceptivecat and with huge innovation occurring, like at the start of widespread ICE car adoption, that isn't very likely for cars produced this decade.
Thomas Caswell : The carbon footprint is just as bad as a gas burning engine, we are simply picking the lesser of two evils .
@@timallen643 and Lithium ion batteries are horrible for the environment. And considering how shitty they are, an EV will need copious amounts of them. Realistically, a decent option is Nuclear power for the centralized system which then powers hydrogen fuel cells for cars. Or a major innovation in battery tech.
@@awesomedavid2012 Hydrogen combustion powered vehicles are the way to go. The out put is water vapor and it doesn't take much to modify current manufacturing processes.
Can this even be called scratching the surface? More like scratching the surface of the cover maybe. Needs some dive in. :)
Maybe there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that sets itself up with 2 hour daily travel between home and work? Especially if that travel takes place as single drivers in machines designed for four or more.
Every aspect of our lives is inefficient
Public transportation and cycling are the more environmentally efficient options and we should be developing land and roads with that in mind. Upzone cities, remove parking minimums and set maximums instead, expand bus services and bike lanes dramatically, and go full in on road diets for the roads that help promote sprawl and discourage walkability.
I think the best way to deal with the problem of electric vehicle waste is to invest in making sure all the electric vehicle designs are built around longevity.
You might think “of course a car company would be building around longevity”, but that would be incorrect because ever since the 1920s, manufacturers have realized that they can make more profits by designing their goods to fail and to be hard to repair, because it forces people to buy more stuff later on.
This is what happened with lightbulbs, with manufacturers forming a cartel that fines members who make bulbs that last too long, which is why there is an incandescent lightbulb that has been on in a firehouse for the last 100 years. Similar things go on with LEDs now with the AC to DC drivers being designed to send far more current through the bulb than it can handle in the long run, and it has been widely reported in car manufacturing, especially with how American cars are designed.
Getting rid of this mandated waste (aka “planned obsolescence”) will protect the environment indefinitely into the future while saving money for consumers to use on everything else they are interested in buying.
Bicycle, my friend.
I whole heartedly agree
A bicycle will be great to carry heavy goods across a country.
Ah yes, the Bicycle...this is how the 'rest of the world' gets around. Electric cars wil primarily be a "First world" problem....That 5000 lb , 700 horsepower Tesla carrying that 265 lb overweight American male...rocketing that Tesla to 60 MPH for a brief time, driving the three kilometers to Costco...And at night, charging up at a rate that could illuminate 24 homes...insanity.
@@darshithrajendra8947 that’s what a train is for
I think the easiest way to make recycling more cost effective is to decrease taxes on the recycling, and increase taxes on the usage of virgin materials, non modular and non recyclable batteries.
This only scratches the surface of the 'Hidden Environmental Costs'. Still more than most others are reporting though. Great job.
I think Adam conover from Adam ruins did something similar to this video however this video goes more in depth
Don't watch his channel, he is an idiot by the way...hehe
I'm getting tired of seeing cobalt singled out for EV batteries. Many industries use cobalt besides EV's and I watch many videos on how EV chemistries are moving away from cobalt. We also do not focus on the fact that almost any article one picks up has relied on a mining, leaching or other process for the material it contains.
Don't forget that most of the energy ICE vehicles consume over their lifetimes comes from petroleum produced by fracking, another copious use of water. While I have not seen recent figures, I recall driving past significant acreage that was rendered non-arable due to leaks of retention ponds related to oil drilling and stimulation when I was young.
The fact that we accept the environmental impact of the mining operations that render the material we are accustomed to in our daily lives make this type of evaluation of the potential impact seem more stark, only because we have not considered the same for those items we currently live with on a daily basis.
On the balance, I do not find trying to touch on this topic in a 4:49 video very helpful. While I do not find fault with any particular statement, the lack of contrast does not provide any context. Seeker generally does better than this.
Shhhhhhh... Seeker, we don't talk about this part of green energy.
Lol, Along with how much oil is used in the concrete for wind turbines.
Can you make a video about planting plants in cities to make the CO2 neutral?
How many tree needs to be planted for every ton of concrete ?
Do the math
Realize its not possible
trees don't grow fast enough to absorb the gigatons of C02 being produced every year.
@@69Bassi69 we should really find a way to trap as much carbon into building materials as chemically possible
@@matheussanthiago9685 Check the company Carbon Cure, they trap Gas Co2 into to minerals(CaCo3) in concrete production
@@matheussanthiago9685 we should stop pumping out so much co2 in the first place
dude really stood in front of a green screen just so they could make him stand in front of a blue one
Eye opening very informative- information that needs to be widely brought forth and known to general public!!!!!! especially the part that involves child labor!!!!!!!!!!!!
We solve one problem just to create a bigger one to the next generation to deal with it
What bigger problem is there than global warming? EV's are not perfect, nothing is. But they are a lot better than the combustion engine, and will continue to improve.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if we're just jumping from one terrible environmental disaster to another with these batteries. I really hope not.
In a way we are, yes. But there's a big difference between them: Mining and landfills stay where you put them (assuming you're careful about groundwater leeching). Stuff we pump into the air does not. So while all this mining is indeed an environmental disaster of its own, its not a _global_ disaster. Its localized. The climate change effects we're seeing on the other hand are affecting the entire world, no matter where they're produced or used. And we can't just put the CO2 in a big box and bury it when it gets too nasty like we tend to do with nuclear waste - once that stuff is in the air its _really_ hard to get it back out. At least, to get back out anywhere near as much as we keep putting in.
The difference is that with regulations EVs are actually better for the environment. But no matter how well we regulate ICEs they will end up being more harmful then EVs long-term
in simple terms this is just the better of the two options
@@altrag well, if you want to use that point, then most of E-waste are sent to third world countries, the most monitored an reported are the E-wastes that reach africa from so called first world countries. there people dismantle and burn the e-waste components and perform crude methods to extract precious metals which will be resold. most of these companies whoever it is will go through the cheapest route, so in the end, they do release toxic materials back into the atmosphere, but since these are not glorified so much as with oil & gas, people live with the assumption that simple laws could regulate e-waste. in my humble opinion, if it was so easy to do it and profitable as spokeperson proclaim it to be, there would be bigger steps that would have been taken and this comment is a needless counter-argument. there are people who make companies to perform noble acts, but their actions i predict would be limited by their economics, political approval and their action on whether they can provide substantial effort to practically proove even half of what they claim, without lying, projecting or lobying and coming up with straight data and actually working to solve rather than proclaiming to help while overpromising and under delivering. these are the trends with most companies these days.
We are because lithium mining is very damaging to the environment
Other uses of cobalt: gasoline and diesel production, high temp metal alloys used in gas turbines among other things, and magnets. Batteries are eliminating cobalt, classical fuels are not. Update please
Finally an adult conversation.
Cool video! Didn't thought about electric cars in this way
Chuck them into the ocean .... the way we recycle plastic
And the manufacture of the plastic in the toys behind you? A bigger issue before BEVs. Little to no cobalt in BEVs Vs the process of oil's from ground to pump.
I'm 1) not sure where you're going with this video and 2) if you understand/explaining the use potential post vehicle propulsion suitability. Batteries are already being re-used and/or up-cycled for other purposes.
Well said!!! This video is ill-informed and not up to the normal standard.
A society based on bicycles would be cool and cars for long distance and people who need it🤔 and for postmate
Nah. Let's just do nuclear.
@@justinreschke3642 nuclear bikes 🤔
And public transports for work commute.
I hate it when I notice they are reading a teleprompter and I just cant unsee it
its seeker's way, deal with it.
Most people read from a script one way or another
Seeker, look into companies like Redwood Materials and Redivivus - they are both working on Lithium-based battery recycling without smelting them down. Presumably, recovery rates for all of the raw materials are north of 90%. I'm surprised and disappointed that you didn't mention them in your video.
If there are components of e-waste that are not cost-effective to recycle, one option is simply to gather the used items into some big repository, while better recycling methods are worked on. Just keep it out of the general waste stream.
Storage is costly as well though. It wouldn't take very long for the costs of keeping the stuff to outweigh the costs of recycling it immediately, and we're back to square one.
@@altrag But do you have anything quantitative? What does "expensive" mean? And there must be many different options for handling the storage, other than immediately recycling everything.
Even if the batteries will be fully ecological in the future, the production of electricity, necessary to power these cars, is also ecologically controversial. These cars are not as clean as they trying to show us.
As if ONLY electric vehicles need cobalt...
Yeah the cobalt is used to refine oil, the same oil is used to mine and transport/process lithium, nickel, copper.....
An electric car actually does more environmental damage than a normal one so why are we still going forward with electric cars where as in 2011 Honda made a hydrogen car where the emission is pure H2O.
You forgot to mention that these batteries can be turned into grid batteries. There is no need to recycle a functioning battery, when you can just keep using it for something else.
There is a lot of information not able to be included in this because it’s not even 5 minutes long.
this is very surface level stuff, please dive deeper in this field
It's absolutely true that no profitable recycling of lithium ion batteries exists.
We don't need to make recycling things cheaper than virgin materials to keep them out of landfills, we need to make it more expensive to just put them in landfills in the first place. Require manufacturers of things you want recycled to pay for the cost of return and recovery at the end of their life. They'll find ways to make recycling inexpensive quick.
Strange that the cobalt mining issue is only adressed since the widespread use of batteries in cars. No one batted an eye during the decades it’s been used as a catalyst in fossil fuel production 🤷♂️
Is this video sponsered by Exxon Mobil perhaps?
Engineer technology with earth in mind ✌
How about doing an analysis on petrol and diesel engines? What are the Requirements for manufacturing and disposing those once they have have spent their life cycle and are no longer usable?
Before EVs becomes widespread...Thinking of this topic is like negative effects of the dream I saw yesterday
Redwood Materials? Tesla? Both are big into recycling.
Redwood recycled the equivalent of 100 tesla car battery in 2020. In 2019 tesla sold 180.000 cars.
So... There is quite a gap. And that s not taking all the other brands into account.
As a general rule for Everything, if it can't be recycled, don't build it. Let's switch to electric and switch to solar, but focused on using only tech that can be 100% recycled and that have minimal harm to the planet.
Recycling is an issue faced by the solar panels too. The commercial Si based solar panels have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years only. The first panels which were installed about 25 years have started to expire. In no soon time solar panel junk is something going to be a headache.
@@gaya3ganeshh Don't spread false, pro fossil fuels info.
Solar panels are already 95%+ recyclable, generally have a 25 year warranty and a product life of 35 years which is no comparison to mining oil and burning it into our atmosphere for 35 years.
Electric cars are much more simple with many fewer parts making the general vehicle fabrication more environmentally friendly and battery tech is improving with leaps and bounds as we ramp up in production and batteries that are highly recyclable now should be made to be nearly 100% recyclable in the near future too.
Let's put solar panels on every home, business and covered parking rooftop and switch to electric vehicles making nearly everything we do solar powered while completely decentralizing our power supply and empowering everyone as power generation owners.
Solar power is CHEAPER and electric vehicles are soon to be CHEAPER to make and already are considerably CHEAPER to maintain and operate, especially if charged from your own solar power.
A 3-5 year ROI (return on investment) for a solar array that will generate power for decades is a no-brainer and the panels can even be made locally too.
#EndFossilFuels #SwitchToSolar #SwitchToElectric
Recycling of all the materials that are recyclable in theory but aren't in practice will only take place with near complete government subsidization.
Another issue you didn’t cover is the energy production required to recharge all of the “green” vehicles.
The same energy used to extract, refine, transport, and sell the "never going to be green" fuels, only significantly less of it for EVs over time and over lifetime of the vehicles. Spoiler: getting constantly greener, albeit sometimes quickly improving, sometimes not so quickly.
Fuel oil gets less green all the time (extraction gets harder/increasing side impacts too).
Research readily available today (just make sure you don't trust the stuff published by the oil&gas brigade/those with Vested Interest).
Yes, greener not to have a vehicle at all... But that is not always an alternative or desirable.
If renewable energy was used at all charging stations then this wouldn't be an issue, but that depends on the location of the charging station. Still significantly less energy than it takes to create fossil fuels.
@@silk.bones.333 the balance of energy is going renewable. For instance, in the UK, the trend to renewables is now unstoppable (including saving all electricity users in the country anyway).
Oh, you mean my solar panels that were produced by a factory run on solar panels?
Gyeah but there's enough fuel in the earth to last forever, not. So let's just keep using fossil fuels with no replacement in sight so oil companies can maximize profits. Not planning for a future that you know it's coming and there is no way around is dumb. Dum da dum dum... To quote South Park.
most would still buy non-electric cars until those are outright banned
I don't get why it takes decades to BAN normal cars
Because Money.
It's called the real world where you can't take dictatorial action like this on a whim.
there's an affordability factor. affordable transportation is a basic necessity. people should be given time to prepare for the change.
@@Kabodanki Dictatorial? This is about saving our ecosystem... It’s an appropriate policy. Just like a lot of other policies, such as mask mandate, store closing, etc. The US has been in constant wars for centuries, that’s dictatorial. And pointless.
And less mining, less US "freedom" coups and wars that destabilize countries who previously put their people's lives above corporations' will.
I'm glad someone is finally telling people about this! Thank you!
i have heard this, but the reality is a lot of these applies, to a lot of industries, EV is just undergoing extreme scrutiny.
eventually efficiencies will kick in and improve decades from now. this is not an easy process
Hydrogen would be a better alternative. Theres an abudance of it, and actually cleans the air of CO2 and only leaves water
There is a lot of Hydrogen. But Hydrogen does not live on it's own. So accessing it is horribly inneficient. There is a reason Hydrogen is not taking off, and why EV's are now inevitable.
Great topic and glad to learn more. The batteries are definitely the one thing that shies me away from electric vehicles. I'd still choose them over combustion cars though.
American Manganese Inc. has a recycling patented process that is 100% recoverable
Nice video.
What about the other environmental cost of electric cars, charging the batteries?
I wanna become an engineer so I can help save the planet
Curiosity satisfied but will ppl ever do something abt it?
Not until it’s (almost) too late
People have been doing something about it long before the people who made this video thought up their oil lobby click bait title.
@@Gabriankle People indeed have been doing something about it, but not nearly enough.
People have been doing things against climate change, but not nearly enough (it finally seems to be on agendas properly to tackle it),
etc.
People always do stuff to prevent issues, but not enough people / barely any people in power do something about it until they have waited so long that they have no choice.
What is happening with those graphene batteries? Are they still in the run?
Don't hold your breath. Graphene technology has been 2 years away for the last 20 years!
@@Kj16V daaaaaam! But I think i saw some like graphene powerbanks for an absurd price for a pb on Amazon last year, and i dident hear anuthing about it anywhere else so...
@@Alex-vf5of graphene batteries are far away from happening, but graphene batteries are a form of solid state batteries, a technology that is ready and is near production. Theyre mostly near market adoption in a few years, plus they use less rare earth materials.
also graphene batteries are doable at a small scale... since graphene can only be produced at a small scale (hence the phone chargers) asofar, and even if graphene could be produced in bigger numbers,graphene is mostly an additive to already-present substances/metals just to make it more effective so its not really used as its own thing.
Graphene.
Lol.
@@unassumingaccount395 never knew that and thanks for pointing that out.
Should talk about where we get the electricity to charge the batteries instead, imported from China who burns coal to make that electricity, it's actually more environment unfriendly than gasolin
Which is why i always dismiss these environment hippies whenever they say they own an electric car as if they are saving lives, yet don't know crap about it.
How much electric power have you ever made? If you are talking down people who are at least trying to make a difference. I make enough to power a house in Canada 100% electric the car is next.
Going green is great in theory but implementing it is another problem. When the people pushing going green than jumps on their private planes an car caravans it tells u everything u need to know.
The average person doesn't have a private plane???
hoping we can get realistic mass production of Graphene. From the reports and videos, it seems like a wonder material that can solve so many issues.
At the end of their useful life for cars these batteries will still be useful for grid energy storage/backup. That further delays when they will be recycled.
Battery recycling should be made mandatory.
Everything needs to be recycled. It is less wasteful.
More companies need to make products from 100% recycled materials.
This is especially true with plastic.
Another intersting aspect in electric cars is Neodymium used in the magnetic motors.
More than 80 procent of this recource is mined in china and the demand is expected to greatly outgrow the suply. Moreover, looking at geopolytical aspacts, this is a critical recource (acourding to the EU % USA). Maybe an idea to do a video about this aswell, as it is almost never talked about.
For papers i've writen about it I interviewed an Industrial ecologist that has published papers on this topic. He stated that he expects this te greatly limit the future production, and that car companies aren't realy doning anything to combat this problem
That’s where I hope Niron comes to use. Those magnets are capable of being big deals.
The Tesla charging stations at truck stops along the interstate are run by Diesel engines and probably use as much diesel as you would filling the car. 🤦🏻♂️
You sure about that?
@@johnmiranda2307 I’m positive they use Diesel engines to power the outlet. The amount used would only be known by the refillers or Tesla.
@@aaronburrell3729 evidence?
@@aaronburrell3729 how does this work for the 1000s of superchargers nowhere near any fuel stations? And the many 1000s of charging locations on other networks which are also nowhere near fuel stations?
It would actually be harder to make EV charging stations depend on burnt fuel than to just plug them into the grid and drip-feed local batteries.
@@aidanapword someone comes by there and fills up the engine that powers the charger with diesel. There is a tank for the engine, just like any other engine.
Cost-competitive lithium recycling could be a real coup for EVs. If EV manufacturers could put a lien on a car's battery that would make sure that the manufacturer would get the battery at end-of-life for the purpose of recycling, that could make EVs substantially cheaper to the end user, both when they're initially bought and when they have to buy replacement batteries.
Proudly sponsored by BP
It doesn't help that many places don't even offer recycling of e-waste, or, charge you for it. Basically incentivizing people to just throw it away in a landfill.
It is illegal to put e-waste in the regular waste stream in Europe so I am not sure what you are talking about.
@@SimonEllwood Last I checked, Europe isn't the entire planet. I also wouldn't be surprised if there are in fact parts of Europe that don't care either.
The absoulte worst thing you can do if you care about the enviroment is buying a new electric car!
The best thing you can do is buy a fuel efficient used car.
Question is - who will recycle them? Car manufacturers? I don't think so. Why? Because it's way more expensive than buying new metals and materials. And once first electric vehicles end their life span - there will be hundreds of thousands of tons of batteries every year going off as e-waste. Sorry for being pessimistic - but I just don't see them getting recycled, way too expensive.
Also, car battery weighs ~230kg on average - that's equivalent of over 4000 smartphone batteries. People do not realize how much more battery e-waste will come once e-cars go mainstream.
Car manufacturers absolutely will, Tesla and Volkswagon are already setting up programs to do just. Recycling will in fact play a huge role in reducing costs to manufacturers. Especially as solid state tech takes over.
Solid state battery technology should try to workout methodology to consume these Lithium cells for substrate or membrane or even for support structure so that evolution of battery tech is more green and sustainable
Don’t be surprised if your used Tesla vehicle battery gets installed in a “new” Powerwall.
Hard to do since ion lithium batteries deplete with time until they are no longer capable of holding charges. So you are obliged to remanufacture them.
its ok guys, tesla stocks only goes up. nothing else matters
StorEn's Vanadium flow batteries are going to make the Tesla Power Wall obsolete. They cost less, do not suffer any degradation, can deliver 100% usable capacity over 35 years, are modular and stackable. Come in 20KW and 30KW sizes. Oh and they are 100% easily recyclable!
what ever happen to salt/glass lithium that prof goodenough made? or the super capacitor ?
world revolves around economics and practicality in corporate view more than science or sustainable solutions
*Redwood materials* search it on google/ RUclips. They are doing a great job at battery recycling
also now you know
has Done an in depth on how batteries can be recycled by chilling them. down etc
Dude your teleprompter is too close to your face, I can clearly see you reading. Trying keeping it a bit farther next time.....
Instead of changing the mindset of people towards public transportation, we squabble if few cents are worth the child labor or encouraging conflicts in third world countries. Private cars are the biggest sound polluters in cities, sole causes of traffic jams and the huge road infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to green city planning.
100K views in 1 day...Superb
Still better than what we got now.
Some time back an online group tried to shout me down when I spoke up in regards to the high cost of green tech. They would not even fact my information. However, you have outed several issues with this one video. Now wind and solar need to be really addressed, total costs from installation to final closing of sites, cost overruns are not what is being touted.
Thank you
We should make clear comparisons to traditional cars. nowadays some people invalidate EVs, because it's polluting to create one, while buying a new gas car that was also just created. Certainly traditional cars are not neutral to fabricate, maybe even worse.
‘Hidden cost’, really? This has been a known issue for years. They aren’t just finding out about this now are they?
Overall and over time they are net beneficial.
@Ying Fipling I’m American but odd attempt of an insult you racist 😂
@Ying Fipling well I don’t see a need to fool anyone luckily
Funny that there's not this level of scrutiny from these youtube channels about oil drilling, refinement, transport, combustion and carbon emissions. Internal Combustion cars are magnitudes more pollutant than EVs during their life-cycle, but they are not trendy, so they don't generate as much clicks. Poor choice of subject, but oh well. Do yourself a favor and unsubscribe from these time wasting channels.