Peak lithium and the electric car

Amid all the hoopla about hybrid electric cars and plug-in hybrids, what sometimes gets short-shrift is the battery, which, like gasoline, is made from a resource extracted from the earth.

The WSJ Environmental Capital blog points out that questions are being raised about whether there is enough lithium to go around, especially as car makers ramp up production. It quotesLux Research which forsees a boom in extraction (pdf):

With lithium scarce, expect global mining companies to go hunting for new economically recoverable reserves, as Rio Tinto has been contemplating in recent months. Such exploration will be a boon to South American countries like Bolivia, which hold significant untapped reserve bases of lithium metal, or China, which holds the second-largest lithium carbonate reserves of any one country.

Ramping up to meet demand is one thing. But resource-rich countries are aware of their position, and perhaps more importantly, sensitive to exploitation by foreign companies. A NYT article looked at the issue of extracting lithium from beneath the salt flats of Bolivia and had this quote:

“We know that Bolivia can become the Saudi Arabia of lithium,” said Francisco Quisbert, 64, the leader of Frutcas, a group of salt gatherers and quinoa farmers on the edge of Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. “We are poor, but we are not stupid peasants. The lithium may be Bolivia’s, but it is also our property.”

The story quotes a Bolivian official saying that “the previous imperialist model of exploitation of our natural resources will never be repeated in Bolivia.” Needless to say, U.S. companies are not rushing to Bolivia’s door and attempts by Japanese firms have not yielded fruit.

All of which leaves the fate of electric cars in the hands of foreign governments who control of a vital swath of natural resources. Sound familiar?

The answer? A model of sustainable development that creates batteries but also produces an economic livelihood for those where the resource exists.