To meet the ever-growing needs of the automotive industry, lithium production should increase sevenfold over the next seven years

Without batteries there is no electromobility, and that their production could already be threatened by the end of the decade is being announced by the German state agency for raw materials (DERA). According to their expectations, with the increase in battery production for cars by 2030, a global shortage of lithium could arise, the main raw material for the production of modern batteries for cars as well as mobile phones, laptops…

DERA calculated that in 2030 global lithium consumption could be between 316,000 and 558,800 tons. In 2020, global lithium production amounted to 82,000 tons, of which only 50 percent was of sufficient purity to be used for battery production.

To meet the ever-growing needs of the automotive industry, lithium production should increase sevenfold over the next seven years, which is difficult to achieve given that over the last four years production has stagnated at levels between 80 and 100 thousand tons.

Currently, the world's largest producer of lithium is Australia. In 2020, 49 percent of total global production came from its mines. Chile is second with 22 percent, China produced 17 percent, and Argentina 7.5 percent. The lithium industry is thus mainly based in only four countries in the world, which could be an additional problem. Battery recycling should reduce the need for new lithium sources, but it is still in its infancy and currently there are only a few such pilot projects in the world.

European industry will be particularly affected by this problem. Forecasts say that Europe, even with the greatest possible efforts, will by 2030 produce only 34 percent of the lithium for its own needs, while recycling would contribute at most another 10 percent. The rest would have to be imported. The largest European producer of lithium is currently Portugal with about 1 percent of global production.

Even earlier, many car manufacturers expressed fears that by 2025 there could already be a global shortage of batteries for electric cars.

Source: jutarnji.hr