We No Longer Notice When the Wool Is Being Pulled Over Our Eyes
Ignorance is not a valid excuse; we don’t care about how our products are made if they save us money on energy when we use them.
A fun fact: these are some of the vehicle manufacturers implicated in falsifying diesel emissions. The real kicker is that all the cars sold during the falsifying of emissions information are on our roads today.
The high emissions produced by these vehicles are being breathed in by you and everyone else, including our Nations children, now. The motivation for this behaviour is simple — vehicle sales and taxes.
Volkswagen (VW)
Audi & Porsche — Porsche vehicles equipped with Audi diesel engines of the Euro 5 and Euro 6 emission standards exceed the limit values for nitrogen oxides many times over.
IAV — an engineering company in the automotive industry, designing products for powertrain, electronics, and vehicle development. IAV operates at sites in France, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and the United States. Clients include the Volkswagen Group, BMW, Stellantis (formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group), Ford, GM (General Motors), Porsche, Toyota, Claas (agricultural machinery manufacturer), and Liebherr.
Daimler
Mercedes-Benz
BMW
Opel/Vauxhall (General Motors)
Jeep
Renault
Nissan
Toyota
Mitsubishi
Fiat Chrysler
Please take note of IAV as they presented innovative technologies for thermal management of electric car batteries at the 45th International Vienna Motor Symposium. IAV are the technology provider to the vehicle manufacturers implicated in falsifying emissions and are the technology provider for the thermal management of electric vehicle batteries.
The Age of the Electric Vehicle (EV) is Upon Us
A fun fact: America is the biggest at almost everything except EV battery manufacturing. In the world of EV battery manufacturing, the volume of EV batteries produced by a nation is measured by the total EV battery storage capacity. The unit of measurement is the same as electricity — watts. A kilowatt (kW) is one thousand watts, a megawatt (MW) is a million watts, and a gigawatt (GW) is a billion watts.
Specific to EV batteries, in Q3 of 2023, the USA deployed 27.4 GW. Germany deployed 11.5 GW, the UK 6.9 GW, and France 4.6 GW — altogether that’s a massive 50.4 GW. Over this same period, China deployed 98.7 GW.
Notably, although China manufactured EV battery capacity (98.7 GWh) was 16% more than in the second quarter of 2023 and 30% more than in the third quarter of the previous year, its share of the global EV battery market was down. It dropped from 58% of global EV battery capacity in Q3 2022 to 54% of global EV battery capacity in Q3 2023.
The global EV battery market increased markedly in 2023. In the third quarter, it was up 39% compared to the third quarter of 2022. Furthermore, it was up 11% quarter over quarter.
The total EV battery production output in Q3 2023 was 182.6 GWh. For the first nine months of 2023, total production output was 477.5 GWh, which is an increase of 45% compared to the first nine months of 2022.
In fact, the total for the first three quarters of 2023 is nearly as much as the total for 2022 as a whole.
Are EVs Better for the Climate Than Gas-Powered Cars?
Over its lifetime, the average new electric vehicle produces about half the greenhouse gas emissions of an equivalent vehicle burning petrol (gasoline) or diesel.
Doesn’t this sound like the exact motivation provided by vehicle manufacturers and governments to justify changing over from petrol (gasoline) to diesel engines?
But there is a crucial element being pushed to one side in these analyses: what is the difference in terms of environmental impact specific to the manufacturing of EVs in comparison to combustion engine vehicles?
We see the trend in EV production and the exponential growth in this market. Financially, it’s an investor’s playground, but at what cost?
Surely, we recognise that with sales growth of this magnitude, production and manufacturing must also increase at the same pace.
Or are we simply choosing to ignore this blatantly obvious connection?
China is categorically by far the worst-performing country when it comes to carbon emissions. But just to add some facts to this statement:
There are a total of 3,092 operating coal-fired power plant units in China. As of January 2023, the province of Shandong, which lies to the south of Beijing, houses the highest number of coal power plants, at over 400 units.
Coal power continues to expand in China, despite the government’s pledges and goals. In the first half of 2023, construction was started on 37 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, 52 GW was permitted, 41 GW of new projects were announced, and 8 GW of previously shelved projects were revived.
Contextually:
A 60-watt lightbulb was commonly used before LED. Every bulb is named based on the number of watts used per hour.
A 100-watt bulb used 24/7/365 will use 876 kWh of energy per year, which requires 325 kilograms (716 pounds) of coal.
To power a small household’s low consumption electrical appliances for a year, it would take around 2,154 kilograms (4,750 pounds) of coal.
Coal-fired power plants only convert 40% of coal’s thermal energy into electricity. Coal-fired power plants are inefficient.
2,460 kWh of electricity are generated per ton of coal.
A 500 megawatt coal-fired power station produces 3.5 billion kWh per year.
Are we really saving the planet by adopting EVs?
Here is a rhetorical answer: let’s move production entirely to the USA, Germany, UK, and France.
However before we act on that idea, we need to understand what rare earth metals are used in the production of EVs.
The batteries mostly rely on lithium and cobalt (not rare earths). At the same time, the magnets in the motors need neodymium or samarium and can also require terbium and dysprosium — all are rare earth elements. The most common rare-earth magnets are the neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and samarium cobalt (SmCo).
Terbium and Dysprosium are sourced almost entirely from ionic clays in China and Myanmar. The Chinese dominance is even greater when considering refined production volumes for Neodymium and Dysprosium.
Neodymium or samarium ores are mined in China, USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. Monazite contains 3% by weight of samarium. There are thought to be around 2 million tonnes of reserves worldwide, with only 700 tonnes per year being extracted worldwide.
The EV foundation is built on sand.
Add in the decoupling from China that is actively being adopted by many democratic countries around the world, and it’s hard to imagine how EVs will survive in the future, let alone get maintained. What will replacement batteries or magnets for the motor cost?
Moving pollution out of our field of vision isn’t removing the problem caused. We all breath the same air.
Thank you for reading my Blog.
Have a lovely day,
Grant
