Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification
Abstract Automotive electrification holds the promise of mitigating transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet at the expense of growing demand for critical metals. Here, we analyze the trade-off between the decarbonization potential of the road transportation sector and its critical...
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37373-4 |
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| _version_ | 1849774364659023872 |
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| author | Chunbo Zhang Xiang Zhao Romain Sacchi Fengqi You |
| author_facet | Chunbo Zhang Xiang Zhao Romain Sacchi Fengqi You |
| author_sort | Chunbo Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Automotive electrification holds the promise of mitigating transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet at the expense of growing demand for critical metals. Here, we analyze the trade-off between the decarbonization potential of the road transportation sector and its critical metal requirement from the demand-side perspective in 48 major countries committing to decarbonize their road transportation sectors aided by electric vehicles (EVs). Our results demonstrate that deploying EVs with 40–100% penetration by 2050 can increase lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese demands by 2909–7513%, 2127–5426%, 1039–2684%, and 1099–2838%, respectively, and grow platinum group metal requirement by 131–179% in the 48 investigated countries, relative to 2020. Higher EV penetration reduces GHG emissions from fuel use regardless of the transportation energy transition, while those from fuel production are more sensitive to energy-sector decarbonization and could reach nearly “net zero” by 2040. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ce9c77af5edc4649bc7a036c21b2e76e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-ce9c77af5edc4649bc7a036c21b2e76e2025-08-20T03:01:43ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-04-0114111610.1038/s41467-023-37373-4Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrificationChunbo Zhang0Xiang Zhao1Romain Sacchi2Fengqi You3Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell UniversitySystems Engineering, Cornell UniversityTechnology Assessment Group, Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis, Paul Scherrer InstituteRobert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell UniversityAbstract Automotive electrification holds the promise of mitigating transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet at the expense of growing demand for critical metals. Here, we analyze the trade-off between the decarbonization potential of the road transportation sector and its critical metal requirement from the demand-side perspective in 48 major countries committing to decarbonize their road transportation sectors aided by electric vehicles (EVs). Our results demonstrate that deploying EVs with 40–100% penetration by 2050 can increase lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese demands by 2909–7513%, 2127–5426%, 1039–2684%, and 1099–2838%, respectively, and grow platinum group metal requirement by 131–179% in the 48 investigated countries, relative to 2020. Higher EV penetration reduces GHG emissions from fuel use regardless of the transportation energy transition, while those from fuel production are more sensitive to energy-sector decarbonization and could reach nearly “net zero” by 2040.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37373-4 |
| spellingShingle | Chunbo Zhang Xiang Zhao Romain Sacchi Fengqi You Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification Nature Communications |
| title | Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| title_full | Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| title_fullStr | Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| title_short | Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| title_sort | trade off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37373-4 |
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