lithium

Electric vehicles held the spotlight at this week's Frankfort Auto Show, with Volkswagon, Daimler and Renault all announcing new EVs and Mercedes introducing a new plug-in hybrid. Along with Nissan's announcement that it intends to sell 150,000 Leaf electric cars in the United States by 2012, the news is raising high hopes for an electric auto industry on the rise.

But as this transportation technology hits the market in coming years, it will raise an interesting question for consumers: What do we do with that battery pack after it stops holding enough charge to power a car?

The auto industry aims to provide batteries that will last for the lifespan of the car—at least 10 to 15 years. But some experts predict that consumers will opt to replace their EV batteries with newer, better ones as the performance degrades.

“When we see some deterioration—when we’ve lost 20% of the battery’s capability in terms of power and energy content—then the question is, will customers accept that kind of deterioration? That’s pretty much our standard for functional end-of-life,” said Ted Miller, senior manager of energy storage strategy and research for Ford Motors.

So what exactly will happen to “spent” EV battery packs?

Getting 500,000 electric cars on the world's roads by 2015 – 1 percent of all the autos produced today – would gobble 10 percent of the planet's current lithium production.

That's more than enough lithium to meet expected demand, say researchers at consulting firm Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), who recently released the fear-allaying figures, which were based on what was mined in 2008.

In fact, the world

"could potentially meet demand for up to 2 million lithium-ion battery powered HEV [hybrid-electric vehicles] and EV vehicles in that same period," GLG said.

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• Stacy Feldman's blog
• 4 comments

Green Energy News has picked up on something interesting in the middle of the Olympic controversy.

Tibet is a treasure trove of lithium.

In fact, it boasts the largest source of known lithium reserves in the whole world, according to the China Tibet Information Center.