Regional sourcing central to greening of EV supply chain

The environmental impact of electric vehicles (EVs), especially their batteries, is a key issue for the industry, and will become more prominent in the years ahead. Achieving 100% sustainability is impossible because of the extractive mining processes at heart of the sector. However, the use of recycled materials, especially materials recovered from life-expired batteries, and cutting emission throughout the supply chain and in automaker factories will be increasingly important. In Europe, regulations now require from 2031 that each battery uses non-virgin sources, specifically at least 16% for cobalt, 85% for lead, 5% for lithium and 6% for nickel. Moreover, in future the industry has to recover material from life expired batteries at the rate of 50% for lithium, and 90% for each of nickel, cobalt and copper.