Raw materials for electromobility

Battery technology, especially with regard to electromobility, is indispensable in today’s news around the world. In times of climate change debate and diesel scandal, more and more people want to live more climate conscious and drive electric. Almost daily, companies publish statements on new demand forecasts, new deals or newly planned production facilities to meet the growing demand for electrically powered vehicles.

For the production of rechargeable batteries, five raw materials are important: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and manganese. Without the metals lithium and cobalt, almost no modern batteries is available at the moment. These two metals are components of the so-called lithium-ion batteries and are the reason for the high energy density, which makes them ideal as a power source for e-cars. Lithium is the lightest metal in the periodic table and has ideal electrochemical properties. Nickel and copper are indispensable raw materials for battery or battery production as well. Copper is not only used in the electric motor itself, but also in the production of batteries and the transportation. Nickel is often a replacement for cobalt in batteries. At the moment, however, almost every electric vehicle and all other mobile devices are built with lithium-ion batteries, but the industry is always looking for alternatives to the currently used raw materials. Newer approaches include, for example, sodium-based batteries.