The Trouble with Lithium
Implications of Future PHEV Demand for Lithium Supply and Resources

Executive Summary
Lithium Ion batteries are rapidly becoming the technology of choice for the next generation of Electric Vehicles - Hybrid, Plug In Hybrid and Battery EVs. The automotive industry is committed increasingly to Electrified Vehicles to provide Sustainable Mobility in the next decade. LiIon is the preferred battery technology to power these vehicles.

To achieve required cuts in oil consumption, a significant percentage of the world automobile fleet of 1 billion vehicles will be electrified in the next decade. Ultimately all production, currently 60 Million vehicles per year, will have to be replaced with highly electrified vehicles – PHEVs and BEVs.

Analysis of Lithium's geological resource base shows that there are insufficient economically recoverable Lithium resources available to sustain Electrified Vehicle manufacture in the volumes required, based solely on LiIon batteries. Depletion rates would exceed current oil depletion rates and switch dependency from one diminishing resource to another. Concentration of supply would create new geopolitical tensions, not reduce them.

Reliance on other hypothetical, unproven potential sources of Lithium such as Seawater is not a realistic or practical strategy on which to base a technology revolution in the automotive industry.

The alternative battery technologies of ZnAir and NaNiCl are not resource constrained and offer potentially higher performance than current automotive LiIon technology. Research and industrialisation of Electrified Vehicles should also prioritise these alternative battery technologies.

Download the White Paper "The Trouble with Lithium"
(2nd Edition)