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Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?12

Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

(OP)
Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? The answer may be “Yes,” but we must change direction if we are to have any chance. Based on recent history, after the coronavirus pandemic is over, US new car sales will return to about 17.5 million units per year. When we get to a first year for all-electric car production, how much lithium will be needed? A lithium ion battery contains 0.3 grams of lithium per amp-hour of battery capacity, or about 0.09 kg of lithium per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
https://batteryguy.com/kb/knowledge-base/how-to-ca...
Lithium mines measure their output in kilograms of lithium carbonate. In terms of mine output, it takes 0.96 kg of lithium carbonate per kWh of battery capacity. Assume each car has an average battery capacity of 60 kWh. Multiplying by 17.5 million cars, the amount of lithium mine output needed will be 1.0 million metric tonnes of lithium carbonate for each year of new EVs
In 2020, total world mine output of lithium carbonate is projected to be about 0.7 million metric tonnes. The world is now scrambling to find more lithium. There are more problems:
• US auto sales are only about 22% of vehicle sales worldwide.
• Power companies are aggressively purchasing Lithium batteries for the grid.
Some say that science can solve the problem—"another, even better battery will be found that may not even need lithium.” Well, no, that isn’t the situation. No other element carries as much charge for its weight as does ionized lithium and the lithium ion cell produces a prodigious 3.7 volts. Current batteries obtain about 85% of the theoretical limit of energy storage for their lithium content. Future improvements will only be in battery structure, weight, and charging speed.

CONCLUSION: Power companies don’t need light-weight batteries—they MUST use something else! America must vastly increase domestic mining and processing of lithium and other strategic materials such as cobalt, nickel, aluminum, and rare earth metals needed for an electrified economy. Plus we can learn to be more thrifty. The auto industry can make more efficient electric vehicles that need only half as much battery capacity.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

There is plenty of lithium on earth- more than sufficient to transition the entire existing vehicle count to battery EVs. As EVs are built out, dead batteries from the last wave of EVs will start to be recycled (more for their Ni, Co, Cu and Al content than for the Li), and the Li will be recycled- because if you go after the others efficiently, you get the Li back easily enough.

The transition won't happen suddenly. It'll ramp up gradually.

In reality, nobody really needs 60 kWh worth of EV battery. It's just what people are used to from driving IC engine cars. As people become more comfortable with EVs and charging infrastructure gets built out more, you'll see more "commuter cars" - super cheap, built with smaller packs.

Kudos to getting the lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) per kWh roughly correct. Most screw that up, confusing LCE with actual lithium mass, which is only about 160 g per kWh. There's a lot of garbage data out there.

We agree that the lithium ion battery, which is optimized for energy density per unit weight and volume- neither of which matter much to grid storage- is likely not the optimal solution FOR grid storage- beyond some very high value, very short term grid stability applications. And so far, that's all Li ion batteries are being used for on the grid- that and people going totally off-grid.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

No problemo. Like Moltenmetal states , there is absolutely no shortage of Lithium across the world. As a miner, Ill guarantee that the mining industry can scale up to any desired level of annual production , with one proviso. The costs might be more than society is willing to bear. How badly does society want this material??.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

2
Society doesn't want the lithium, society wants clean air. If the price gets too high, society will find an alternative.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Actually, lithium batteries are not being recycled. Even Elon's big battery factories and Tesla just dump the batteries. I work at a company that uses significant numbers of lithium batteries, and returned batteries are sorted into cells and everything else (circuit boards, busbars, etc). the cells are discharged and go in the dumpster. The other metals go a recycling direction. The reason the cells are even separated is to discharge them less they cause a fire on the trucks or at the landfill.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Quote:

When we get to a first year for all-electric car production, how much lithium will be needed?

Depends on how fast change is foisted upon us. If we're still using lithium, a LOT more than anyone figures due to the ~10 year lifespan. Hopefully we're not legislated down that road until we have a reasonable solution based on a better technology.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Comcokid: somebody is doing a big, big no-no then.

Lithium ion batteries are NOT safe to landfill. They contain water soluble solvents which are also combustible, as well as leachate toxic materials.

Lithium ion batteries are being recycled in large masses already in China.

Post consumer collection and recycling here in North America is in its infancy.

However, they are better ores for all the metals they contain- for the Li, Co, Ni, Al and Cu- than any such ores mined on earth.

One of the big problems with mined ores for battery use is the need for purification. The Li in Li ion batteries contains no Na, K, Ca or Mg, so that means a lot less purification effort. Similarly the Ni and Co contain no Fe, and the Al and Cu are present as reduced metals, so quite easy to separate.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

miningman: bigger question is how much investment in new lithium production can be expected despite falling prices...

Direct lithium extraction from brines is going to potentially be a big source going forward. Some brines being harvested already for other things, like the Smackover brine in Arkansas extracted for bromine production, can easily have its Li removed- Standard Lithium is doing this in a demo plant at considerable scale right now:

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Here in Irvine, CA, we're not allowed to dispose of any sort of batteries in either the recycle bin or the trash bin. They have a special hazardous waste drop-off site where you can take things like engine oil, paint cans, empty aerosol cans, electronic waste and batteries, everything except medical waste. In fact, they'll give you a free battery disposal containers to collect them in. I go about once or twice a year, mostly with aerosol cans and batteries, as well as the occasional old can of paint or garden chemical.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

GregLocock - The 2015 book "Junkyard Planet" by Adam Minter is a fascinating read on worldwide scrap recycling. In the 70's- 80's large electrical motors were difficult to tear down and separate the copper and steel, so they were put into industrial landfills. After 2000 with China's need for steel and copper, and the emergence of the large metal shredding machines, these landfills were reopened and mined.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Battery technology is only one of the factors making electrical vehicles (cars and transport vehicles in general, including boats, ship, airplane and airships) possibly commercial competitive in the future.

Another main factor is how cheap (and clean) electrical power can be produced and made accessible, and also how strong the worlds will is to progress in this way.

In this context everything depends on everything else, as usual.

To the original question. Others have pointed out the large quantities of lithium on earth, without even mentioning what lies below sea level... (Oh yes, seriously discussed with deep sea technology!)

And battery development seems already to have surpassed the obstacle of lithium batteries..(search for: new developments in electric storage batteries)

As engineers we tend to make a pointed questions, and will get pointed answers.

As often stated: a helicopter view or thinking 'outside the box' will give a multitude of answers and a multitude of new questions...

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Another adage (albeit slightly modified): if your only solution looks like a hammer, all your problems will look like a nail.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

LionelHutz, we shall not go around looking behind the curtains :)

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I'm not going to suggest it doesn't have trade-offs and downsides, as everything does, but there are potential benefits to stationary power generation compared to mobile for emission controls. I'm a little more versed in how that relates to diesel generators vs. vehicles, but that also has more to with NOx than carbon emissions, so NG generators might not have the same benefits. Assuming carbon capture is an option at some point though, it would be easier on stationary plants than vehicles, no?

That all being said, the compounding energy losses while converting from chemical, to electric, to motive make me wonder how efficient it really is compared to directly from chemical to motive.

Andrew H.
www.MotoTribology.com

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Samsung revealed a new silver-carbon solid state EV battery that eliminates the need for lithium.Their claim is a 500 mile range per charge and no battery fires from growth of dendrites.

If all US vehicles were EV's, then in order for that paradign to work with an all renewable electrical supply system, most EV's would need to be parked and plugged in to the grid during the peak daytime solar generation time period 10 am -4 pm . Also , the home rechargers and load centers would need to be 2-way, to allow small household loads ( lighting, internet) to be powered by the car battery if there was an electrical outage.

I understand there is anew EV on the market, called Kandi K27, with a sale price below $10K USD. Maybe a better alternative is buy a used Leaf and replace the battery with an upgraded battery. "...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? In Brisbane, there is a mixed bag. The Council was in the process of going to all gas powered, then a couple of 'explosions' occurred. So now, they are transitioning back to diesel. Knee jerk reaction? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-03/brisbane-ci... RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? EVs are more efficient than combustion-engine vehicles even if the grid power is all coal. The central generating plant can run at a high-efficiency operating point almost all the time. 40% thermal efficiency is not uncommon. A petrol engine in a car is maaaybe capable of being 30-ish% efficient at an operating point that is hardly seen in real driving, and it spends an awful lot of time at operating conditions that are well below that, if not zero. Yes, the EV has charge-discharge losses in the battery; these are pretty low for a good lithium battery. Offsetting that ... the combustion engine has a very complicated mechanical transmission that is order-of-magnitude same efficiency as the charge-discharge efficiency in a battery (85% - 90%); the single-speed reduction gear in an EV has insignificant losses. (No torque converter, no oil pump, no clutch plates sliding against each other, much lower oil-churning losses) The grid distribution that we have is in no way capable of supporting a fully EV fleet right now. Even setting aside fast-charging ... imagine if your entire neighborhood had one (or two) EVs charging at 7 kW demand simultaneously. I highly doubt if the distribution network is designed to have every household at max demand all the time. BUT ... Even if the alleged 2030 - 2035 timeframe for changing to substantially-all new vehicles being EV, that's 10 - 15 years off, and then it's going to take another 10 - 15 years for those vehicles to substantially replace the existing fleet. An overnight flip-the-switch transition to a substantially-all-EV fleet not only isn't going to happen, but it cannot happen. But a gradual shift over 25 years ... there's time to react. The time that it takes to build (let's say) a nuclear plant ... needs to be kept in mind. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? And 25 years from now, how many of those EV's will be garaged in a house with a solar roof/home battery infrastructure? John R. Baker, P.E. (ret) EX-Product 'Evangelist' Irvine, CA Siemens PLM: UG/NX Museum: The secret of life is not finding someone to live with It's finding someone you can't live without RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? There appears to be rather large disparity in efficiencies EVs are on the order of 25 kWh/100 mi, while ICE cars are on the order of 125 kWh/100 mi https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/what-is-mpge#:.... TTFN (ta ta for now) I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote (JohnRBaker) And 25 years from now, how many of those EV's will be garaged in a house with a solar roof/home battery infrastructure? And how many will be parked at apartments with...who knows what? The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? One style of fast charger stores energy kinetically ( via a high speed flywheel) during non charging periods, and can recharge a large EV battery in minutes. It may have an 8 hr cycle time, so the impact on the grid is minimal. In any case, most commuter cars are left in a daytime parked condition for 9 hrs , so they do not need fast chargers. "...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote: In any case, most commuter cars are left in a daytime parked condition for 9 hrs Keeping banker's hours, are we? Nevertheless, the question is who's going to pay for all the infrastructure in the parking lot, although, if we can't adequately deal with COVID, only a few chargers will be needed. TTFN (ta ta for now) I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? How people who live in city areas where they have no parking area on their property and have to park on the street are the ones I'm curious about as far as getting their electric cars charged. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Reality will set in. It always does. When governments clue in to how much infrastructure spending is required to bring countless megawatts of charging-station capability to dense urban areas with no private parking ... something will give. Imagine the cost of replacing every street-parking meter with a 6.6 kW Level 2 charger. Think about what to do about all the areas with on-street parking without marking meters that would still need that. Apartment buildings? All well and good to have three or four EV parking spots with charging stations. What happens when every parking spot needs to have a charging station? That's what it would come to in the dream world of all vehicles being EVs. I suppose private ownership of vehicles is unfavourably regarded, especially in areas like that. Maybe someone dreams of it being all public transit, or all ride-sharing. And it's true, in many such areas, you CAN get away without owning a car. Lots of people do. I can't. The nature of my job means not relying on public transit. My car has all sorts of stuff in it that I need from time to time. That doesn't work in someone's ride-sharing and public-transit utopia. And that's why I don't live in an area like that! Does something need to "give"? Absolutely. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote: What happens when every parking spot needs to have a charging station? That's what it would come to in the dream world of all vehicles being EVs. My son's condo just upgraded to having charging cables for all parking spots, EXCEPT HIS, because it's not near a wall TTFN (ta ta for now) I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote (IRstuff) My son's condo just upgraded to having charging cables for all parking spots, EXCEPT HIS, because it's not near a wall Well duh, how would it stand up? Is is just supposed to float there? For that to work, they'd have to invent some sort of "pole" or something and I just don't think we're quite there yet.... Andrew H. www.MotoTribology.com RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Tesla recharging stations are free-standing: June 2016 (Sony a6000) John R. Baker, P.E. (ret) EX-Product 'Evangelist' Irvine, CA Siemens PLM: UG/NX Museum: The secret of life is not finding someone to live with It's finding someone you can't live without RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? John, surely you know sarcasm when you encounter it? The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote: Are Tides And Waves The Missing Piece Of The Green Energy Puzzle? Given the decades of greenies' protesting traditional hydro generation NOT in their backyard, I dont see them smiling upon another form of hydro generation at their beloved local shores. Quote: That all being said, the compounding energy losses while converting from chemical, to electric, to motive make me wonder how efficient it really is compared to directly from chemical to motive. The parameter you're looking for is brake-specific emissions. g/kw*hr. Obviously there are a plethora of power sources for the EV but the bottom line is that EVs powered by fossil fuels are major polluters vs an ICE vehicle due to the compounding inefficiencies of generation, transmission, and charging. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Quote: Obviously there are a plethora of power sources for the EV but the bottom line is that EVs powered by fossil fuels are major polluters vs an ICE vehicle due to the compounding inefficiencies of generation, transmission, and charging. Got any data to back this claim. Generally speaking, EVs powered by fossil fuse should still be considered polluters, but will be better than an ICE vehicle in most cases. In my example, the generation right beside the charging stations eliminates most of the transmission losses. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? circa 2001 , Frank Kreith ( author of heat transfer books) published a 10 page "proof" that if we replaced IC cars with EV cars, pollution would increase significantly, as well as costs. At that time, California was considering such a mandate, and most electric power to California was imported fossil fuel power , but also they claimed priority use of the northwest hydro power from other states. I think his conclusions would be altered if the modern increase in wind and PV renewable power was factored in. "...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? That brings up another point. A combustion-engine vehicle is stuck with running on gasoline or diesel fuel. An EV in effect runs on whatever mixture of electricity sources that your local grid uses. In my case, it's about half nuclear, a quarter hydroelectric, the rest a mixture of natural gas and wind/solar. Clean up the grid and you in effect clean up the vehicles powered by it. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? There are many studies, the results of which may reflect the prejudices of the scientists involved, and of course, they are affected by changes in generation methods. For instance EVs never made much sense from a CO2 perspective in Germany, and as they are getting rid of nukes, and have built a new coal powered power station, they make even less now. UCS, scarcely a neutral source, says EVs have more emissions than sensible ICEs for 25% of the USA population. https://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-reichmuth/new-data-sh... Cheers Greg Locock New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? I tried to find the Kreith article ( published as an addendum to the monthly ASME magazine" Mechanical Engineering"circa 2001), and instead found a large number of other articles by that prolific author . Espescially relevant to the discussion of energy alernatives is that article titled "Bang for the Buck", published May 2012 in Mechanical Engineering magazine, by Kreith. Irrespective of the inaccuracies of the "climate change" modeling results promoted by the IPCC , it should be obvious that society will need to develop alternatives to fossil fuels as they inevitably become uneconomical due to depletion. His articles comparing energy alternatives based on EROI energy return on investment is very telling. "...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? GregLocock: The Union of Concerned Scientists wrote a report whose title says it all: "Cleaner Cars- From Cradle to Grave" EVs are cleaner on a lifecycle basis than the fleet average car that they replace, basically everywhere in the USA already right now, much less going into the future. EVs are cleaner than a PRIUS, which is the cleanest car without a plug you can buy in the USA, still, in all but a handful of states. And in Canada, where I live, 80% of us have access to a grid which is 40 g CO2/kWh or less. Here, EVs are a total environmental no brainer. The extra embodied emissions from making the battery are paid off in a year here, for a battery with a reasonable capacity- a couple years for the giant pack in a Tesla Model 3 LR version. If GHG and toxic emission reductions actually matter, EVs are the solution, assuming that walking, biking, e-bikes, scooters or public transit aren't an option. Those are of course all better- except for diesel buses of course. My home-made EV did better in GHG emissions from source per person-mile than a diesel transit bus with 60 passengers. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Which EV, though? The Prius isn't representative of the average vehicle bought by a US consumer. The most popular EV in the US market (Tesla) also isn't representative of the average vehicle bought by a US consumer while simultaneously not being comparable to a Prius, either. It shouldn't be surprising that a hypothetical F150/Hummer/Cybertruck EV (an EV, but still a heavy and inefficient one) is going to be worse overall than a hypothetical Prius (close to, if not the, most efficient petrol-engine vehicle you can get). RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? The Prius argument doesn't count for much either way. Sure, there are a handful of gasoline hybrids that get over 45mph (probably about 15-20 models maybe). 25% of the USA might live in an area where one of these vehicle models could do better than a pure EV. But, all of that population in those areas certainly doesn't own one of these vehicles, and you'd have a hard time convincing many in those populations that they should own a vehicle in that class. The "better" isn't much either, for a lot of that area it's within a couple of mpg. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? 2 Too many of the studies are based on a EV don't consider an air conditioner or heater. An EVs is fine if you live in San Jose CA. EVs have A/C and heaters that are marginal at best and also significantly impact the efficiency. In a Florida summer a vehicle is an environmental lifeboat that moves you from one airlock to another airlock. A high-performance vehicle is one that will run the A/C at full blast while stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I lived there and had to equip my 4-cyl car with a welded-aluminum racing radiator to ensure I would survive. In the northern great planes states in a winter blizzard you can die in a vehicle in a few hours without a heater, and an EV has to heat the battery first so it will even function. You can check the Tesla forums. Many find running the A/C at any level cuts range by 20% or more. You find people on the Tesla forums talking about running diesel/kerosene fueled heaters in cold winters because of how much otherwise heating impacts the range. So much for the low carbon footprint! RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Accepting the fact that nearly all the published papers on EVs and hybrids are a bit biased ( generally written or financed by manufacturers or suppliers) and accepting that Toyota has a well earned reputation for reliabilty etc etc, How come theres so little written extolling the virtues of the Hyundai product line??? RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? There is some truth to it. The EV buses Toronto is buying use fuel oil or diesel fuel fired heaters below 5*C. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Comcokid, how are they heating their cars with the fired heaters? Heating their garages while parked? Surely not fired heaters in the car... The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? "Talking about" doesn't imply "doing" ... Teslas up to the Model Y have used an electric resistance heater, which is of course an energy hog in cold weather. The Y uses a heat pump with the interestingly-named "octovalve" that allows it to send heat and cooling in various directions to extract the most possible use out of what heat is available in the vehicle (e.g. powertrain). The latest revision to the 3 includes that system as well. Independent testing has been finding that this system uses about a third as much power to keep the interior at 21 C when the outside temperature is near freezing. A coefficient-of-performance of 3 for a heat pump would not be surprising, so this makes sense. They're not the only ones to be using a heat pump. Certainly cold weather will still be a hit to the range, but not so badly as before. I routinely see Teslas out on the road in winter. It doesn't render them useless, as what some people write would imply. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? All cars drop in range (energy economy) in winter weather. That drop common to all cars is at least 10%- more for fossil fuelled hybrids which over-cool when the engine is stopped when it's not required (to avoid idling). On top of it, an EV uses energy in the battery to either make heat (through a resistance heater) or to pump heat (using a heat pump). That will drop range a lot if you're driving very slowly in very cold weather, and barely at all if you're driving FAST in cold weather- because it's energy use in proportion to how much the drivetrain is using. 3 kW for heat when you're using 1 kW average crawling along in stop and go traffic is a big range drop- 3 kW out of 20 kW blasting along full speed on the highway isn't a big range drop at all. None of that of course is any justification to waste 2/3 or more of the energy in your "tank" as heat, just to have some waste heat to warm your cabin! Dress warmly, prewarm the cabin using grid power before you leave, take advantage of the heated seats and steering wheel, and keep the focus on keeping the windscreen clear. That'll drop your range loss quite a lot. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Just to underline the point made, here is a meticulous account of the measured fuel consumption of a 4-cylinder sedan (mine) driven for 6 years. The fuel consumption in the summer is in the mid-8 L/100km. In the winter it's in the mid-9 L/100km. Seasonal variation therefore about +/-5%. So in context, some range and efficiency loss to an EV is nothing new or special compared to a gasoline car. The real change is just that nobody has been paying attention all this time. Note: These values are not the imaginary numbers on the digital screen that all cars with fuel computers including mine display to their drivers. These values are measured at the pump using calibrated and temperature corrected volumes, and on the odometer that is also calibrated frequently using highway test signs. Note: I have checked several models of cars and the fuel consumption displays all underestimate by 10%, including mine. Note: There is a substantial gap in my driving through most of 2020. Note: There is a trend in the yearly average from about 9.0 in 2012 to 9.4 in 2019 that represents the aging of the car. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Is that driven from new? I typically see a 10% fall in the first 1000-3000 km which I attribute to the diff (in particular) running in. However cynics may suggest that in the first few weeks I mess about a lot more than I do later. Cheers Greg Locock New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? It's a 2008 car. I bought in 2012 when it had 140,000 km (87k miles) and I've got it up to 380,000km (237k miles). I "mess about" lots in the summer because of the better traction. I also "mess about" lots in the winter... because of low traction... :\ it's a fun car with a 6-speed manual gearbox. Lotsa choices. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Coldness kills LI-ion batteries, so where I live they are only good for part of the year. When those batteries are not being used that need to be kept in a heated garage. Jerry J. UGV5-NX1884 RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Coldness doesn't "kill" lithium ion batteries. Trying to charge or discharge them when too cold can kill them though. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? Hi Jerry On the surface, what you say is true enough (except for the exaggeration) but the auto makers have not thrown up their hands and quit in disgrace. They simply introduced temperature management systems into the battery packs. While plugged in, the cell temps are regulated to prevent cold charge/discharge damage. This takes care of the worst of the problem for the majority of US drivers. RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America? An interesting bit of news: Tesla's dirty little secret: Its net profit doesn't come from selling cars https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/investing/tesla-pro... This sort of reminds me of where I worked when I first graduated fro engineering school. We had developed this machine which used a significant number of a particular item which was expendable, that is, they would wear out. It was what was called a 'depanner', for taking bread and rolls out of baking pans in large commercial bakeries: Now we were one of three or four companies who made these machines and they all used basically the same type of silicon rubber 'vacuum cup': Now the issue was that the company I worked for held the patent for using 'vacuum cups to lift food products'. And since this was, as I said, an expendable item which had to be replaced often (over the course of year, a typical high-production facility would go through four or five sets of cups per machine). Now they weren't that expensive and they became basically a commodity, that is no matter who you brought them from, they were identical. Now we didn't manufacture the cups themselves, that wasn't what we did. And since these cups could actually be used for applications that did not involve picking up a 'food product', we actually had no claim to the cups themselves, just how they were used. Of course, when we sold one of our depanners, no big deal because it was our patent, but if one of our competitors sold one of their depanners, we collected a royalty of$200 (note that this was back in the 60's and 70's). And it wasn't just depanners, as there were a couple of companies, for example, that made machines that picked-up eggs and placed them in those paper mache cartons, at least they were paper mache back then. But since eggs were 'food products', we collected royalties from them as well. Whenever there was a trade show where machinery was on display for use in any sort of food production or processing industry, we would always send one of our people with a copy of our patent and some blank contracts. Every once in awhile, a new 'customer' would show-up.

And then there was the spares business, and since, as I said, all the cups were the same, we also made money selling replacement cups to these large bakeries whether they had one of our depanners or one from one of our competitors. Anyway, it was a sweet business, but of course, that was over 40 years ago, so I assume that the patents have expired by now.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Big difference. Government wasn't forcing 'customers' to pay you, but those eleven State governments are forcing the other companies to pay Tesla.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

No one is forced to pay Tesla - they happen to be a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, but any manufacturer is eligible. The manufacturers can build their own electric vehicles if they choose to, but most have failed to make suitable investments, waiting instead for some other company to work out the bugs. If it offsets the risks Tesla has taken, that seems fair.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I'm not saying they shouldn't sell them, they should. And yes, the credits were 'designed' as a way to promote EV development, so to that extent they've worked. It just puts all the silly headlines about Tesla profits into perspective. Their cars are sold at a loss, if you use the usual accounting procedures, so of course no OEM, with less tolerant shareholders, is going to try to compete seriously.

Cheers

Greg Locock

New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

At least ONE large OEM is talking about where it would like to go with respect to producing electric vehicles:

GM to go all-electric by 2035, phase out gas and diesel engines

GM launched its first long-range electric car, the Chevy Bolt, in 2016.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

A widely misunderstood press release. I aspire to lose 10 kg this year, GM aspires (but does not promise) to have zero tailpipe emissions for new (ie not ongoing models) light duty vehicles (ie not work trucks)in 2035. "an aspiration to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035"

You can fool all of the people some of the time.

Cheers

Greg Locock

New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Not just GM either, pretty much all the automakers making that noise...

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I DID say that GM was "talking about where it would like to go with respect to producing electric vehicles."

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

The MSM headlines are the ones that don't understand it. Detroit News 'pledges', CNN "sell only", cnbc "exclusively offer" , cbs "eliminate", the independent (UK) "to stop", reuters "to end"

Cheers

Greg Locock

New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I don't think that the bottleneck will be in Lithium, but rather on all those rare earth elements that are very difficult and polluting to extract and are...rare (pun intended).

These elements are, at the current level of scientific knowledge and from the little that I know of batteries, the drivers of battery efficiencies and lifespan...

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

And those rare earth elements are also used in those very efficient, both in terms of size and power, electric motors used in EV's.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Technical issues aside, I keep wondering if ordinary people are going to spend their own money to buy the things if ICE cars are still available, or if they will have to coerced "persuaded".

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Coercion will be required for ordinary people like me. My next car, like my current one, will have a diesel engine. But then, that may be my last one.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I see the Electric Vehicles Council of Australia wants government subsidies for rich people's new cars. I don't think they get the optics. The economics are such that it is a very expensive way of reducing CO2.

Cheers

Greg Locock

New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

hokie, that's what I'm thinking. I'm not against electric cars but I am against coercion :)

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

For what it's worth:

The Battery Is Ready to Power the World

After a decade of rapidly falling costs, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is poised to disrupt industries

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Couldn't read the whole story, paywall, but I expect I'd be underwhelmed. Grid-scale storage is a not-solved problem.

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

MedicineEng: rare earth elements (lanthanides) are NOT USED IN LITHIUM ION BATTERIES.

They are used in EV motors, where they are a straight up features for cost deal. They make the motors lighter and more efficient, reducing how much battery you need for a given range- saving the metals that are actually used in Li ion batteries, i.e. Li, Co, Ni, Mn, Al, Cu etc.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

...and by the way, rare earth elements aren't actually rare, either. Deposits of them, particularly deposits rich in the heavy elements, of mineable concentrations, are rare however. They often form via ion exchange. And the real problem with mining these guys isn't mining them, but rather separating one element from the next because they are very chemically similar- and from the radioactive thorium that they are usually found with.

The irony that people who hate or fear EVs often also seem to be in love for some reason with the possibility of thorium fission is rather delicious.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I love EV's and nuclear fission reactors. Do I get a prize?

Please remember: we're not all rednecks!
www.sparweb.ca

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

moltenmetal:
Thank you for your clarification on the rare earth elements and its use in EV ecosystem.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

what will we do with batteries waste?

luia

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Shhhhhh :)

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

What are we doing with nuclear waste? Or for that matter, the sludge from processing coal and the stuff that we're injecting into oil wells to increase net production or what we're forcing into the rock formations during fracking, for natural gas production?

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Battery recycling will happen when there is sufficient demand for it, which will be when there are sufficient EVs not only out on the roads but also reaching the end of their service lives. Batteries are a richer ore of nickel, cobalt, etc than any natural ore is.

The "greening" of the power grid is connected/related but bear in mind that a new combustion-engine vehicle is locked into its fuel source for its life (and its related CO2 emissions, and the various environmental issues associated with extraction and processing of fossil fuel), whereas an EV will transition "green" in conjunction with the power grid. Or, if you wish, with the installation of photoelectric panels on your own roof and your own on-site battery storage. Can't do anything of the sort with a combustion-engine vehicle.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Quote:

BrianPetersen
Battery recycling will happen when there is sufficient demand for it, which will be when there are sufficient EVs not only out on the roads but also reaching the end of their service lives. Batteries are a richer ore of nickel, cobalt, etc than any natural ore is.

That just, sounds me to push with the belly forward and later we'll see, like has always happened with human activity, while the stick goes and comes back, your back rest a little.

luis

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Quote:

JRB
What are we doing with nuclear waste? Or for that matter, the sludge from processing coal and the stuff that we're injecting into oil wells to increase net production or what we're forcing into the rock formations during fracking, for natural gas production?

About the above subject we are just pushing the belly forward, or the same as whistling to the side.

luis

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

0707: battery waste is already being recycled in China, and numerous companies (more than can possibly survive) are pursuing battery recycling tech development in North America and Europe. There will be a death march leading to consolidations and construction of a few plants of sufficient scale to make significant money and hence they will BUY dead batteries as a feedstock.

Li ion cathode is better ore for Ni and Co than any ore for those metals found on earth- better than most concentrates actually, because it contains no iron.

Li ion batteries similarly are a great source to recover Li from, because they contain no Na, K, Ca or Mg that are difficult to separate from the Li.

And even Li-FePO4 batteries, which contain no valuable cathode metals- are being accepted by recyclers like Li-Cycle. Why? Because the Li, and the Cu and Al current collector foils, ALREADY make them of value to recycle. Value to them, i.e. they make Li-Cycle money.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

moltenmetal

"In South America, the biggest problem is water. The continent’s Lithium Triangle, which covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, holds more than half the world’s supply of the metal beneath its otherworldly salt flats. It’s also one of the driest places on earth. That’s a real issue, because to extract lithium, miners start by drilling a hole in the salt flats and pumping salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface.
Then they leave it to evaporate for months at a time, first creating a mixture of manganese, potassium, borax and lithium salts which is then filtered and placed into another evaporation pool, and so on. After between 12 and 18 months, the mixture has been filtered enough that lithium carbonate – white gold – can be extracted.

It’s a relatively cheap and effective process, but it uses a lot of water – approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65 per cent of the region’s water. That is having a big impact on local farmers – who grow quinoa and herd llamas – in an area where some communities already have to get water driven in from elsewhere.

There’s also the potential – as occurred in Tibet – for toxic chemicals to leak from the evaporation pools into the water supply. These include chemicals, including hydrochloric acid, which are used in the processing of lithium into a form that can be sold, as well as those waste products that are filtered out of the brine at each stage."

luis

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

The "water" is actually brine much saltier than seawater. It's not being "used", it's being withdrawn and evaporated.

It's not like they're taking freshwater out of wells and using it to purify the lithium. They simply pump the brine to the surface of the desert and then allow it to evaporate. As each salt crystallizes out, they pump the remaining brine to another evaporation "pan" to cryztallize out the next salt.

It's about as benign a mining process as can be imagined.

But when you draw brine out of the subsurface, there's a fear that this will cause freshwater to flow lateraly from great distances away to replenish the brine aquifer. That's what the local people are worried about. And maybe they're right. But there's no mining operation on earth that doesn't have environmental impacts of some sort.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

The refining generally doesn't happen on site in the desert. Most of the purification happens in China, because that's where the batteries are made in the largest quantities.

And the quantities of brine used per tonne of lithium are large- because lithium isn't the largest mass product produced, by any stretch. There are quite a few other products from a salar evaporation "mine", including potash (potassium chloride) and quite a few others.

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

An interesting development, if true:

VW accidentally leaks new name for its U.S. operations: Voltswagen

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/29/vw-accidentally-le...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

April Fool!

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

I did say "if true"...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Well, yeah, but this Editors Note was placed ahead of the article itself:

Editor’s Note: Volkswagen initially said it was going to rename its U.S. operations Voltswagen to signify its commitment to electrification of its fleet. The company confirmed Tuesday that the announcement was an elaborate April Fools’ joke. Our full story on the ‘joke’ is here. Below is the original story based on VW’s announcement of the name change.

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

This is the trend...

Lithium battery costs have fallen by 98% in three decades

In a few years electric vehicles may cost the same as their combustion-engine counterparts

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/3...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-'Product Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

probably run out of materials soon

RE: Can lithium batteries power all cars in America?

Quote (CWB1)

Unfortunately stateside the greenies have had us regressing for half a century, removing cheap hydro power to "reclaim" nature

Have you seen the water level in Lake Mead lately?
Did you know there was a 7-year drought in Northern Québec about a decade ago that cut HQ's capacity significantly?

Nature is doing its own regressing in response to our activities... incidentally, there are few if any sites remaining in the US and Canada for large-scale hydro development. The big one currently under construction in remote Labrador is a total boondoggle.

BTW, who are these Stateside 'greenies'?

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

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