By Our Swedish Correspondent.
In July EU published the “European Green Deal” and one section described the future for road transport to complement emissions trading. Stronger CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans would accelerate the transition to zero-emission mobility by requiring average emissions of new cars to come down by 55% from 2030 and 100% from 2035 compared to 2021 levels. As a result, all new cars registered as of 2035 will be zero-emission.
We all stood up and cheered the EU administration for decisive forward thinking, but… there are at least two problems with the above!
Car battery is composed of a number of minerals, a majority of them excavated in Congo, and the essential minerals are lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and aluminium. It is estimated that there’s about 63 kg of lithium in a 70 kWh Tesla Model S battery pack, which weighs about 453 kg. Cobalt makes up about 15%, about 68 kg and nickel is 80%.
DR Congo stands for 65% of world production, a country that is extremely politically unstable with deeply rooted corruption. With a rising global demand, this will likely increase the oppression of the miners in DRC, fill the pockets of the Chinese government through companies like Congo Dongfang Mining.
Yes, you read it correctly, the Chinese mining industry have bribed the Congolese government to attain concessions that used to belong to the local people and the Chinese have now set up brutal mining operations with the locals as slave workers, to do with as they please. In 2018 a number of news channels published video proof of abused and exploited children. Non the less EU ignore the slavery and forced child labour.
That’s the first problem!
Another, smaller, issue is the infrastructure needed to ensure that drivers are able to charge or fuel their vehicles at a reliable network across Europe. EU states that, in the revised Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, they “will require Member States to expand charging capacity in line with zero-emission car sales, and to install charging and fuelling points at regular intervals on major highways: every 60 kilometres for electric charging and every 150 kilometres for hydrogen refuelling.”.
Well, hydrogen seems to be on its way out in favour for electricity, clearly seen in big car manufacturers (VW) strategies for the future, in part due to cost per kilometre where hydrogen is much more expensive in current scenarios.
Also remains to see if the consumer is willing and able to by electric cars ranging from 6,900€ (Citroen Ami One, 45 km/h, max 100 km) to 174,083€ (Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid Turbo Coupe PHEV).
And will the consumer buy a car built on child and slave labour, built on blood?
