Lithium supply may not be sufficient for electric car battery production, study finds

Key minerals used to create lithium batteries may not be sufficient to
meet future demand for plug-in hybrid and electric cars

The vast majority of world's supply of lithium carbonate, the mineral
used to make lithium-based batteries for cellphones and laptop
computers is found in just four countries: China, Chile, Argentina,
and Bolivia, reports William Tahil, director of research for Meridian
International Research in a newly released white paper entitled, The
Trouble with Lithium.

In an exclusive telephone interview with EV World (www.evworld.com),
Tahil contends that all of the world's current production of lithium
salts, which are extracted from brine lakes high in the Andes and
Tibet, is being utilized for small electronics and other industrial
applications, and while production capacity will double in the next
few years, the industry simply can't produce enough lithium to build
the hundreds of millions of large-format batteries needed to power the
electric cars and plug-in hybrids of the future.

Recently both General Motors and Ford Motor Company unveiled electric
concept cars at the North American International Auto Show that make
use of lithium-chemistry batteries. As recently as the 2007 State of
the Union address, George Bush has been promoting plug-in hybrids and
through an executive order is requiring federal fleets to buy them in
the future.

Tahil estimates as much of 15% of the world's known reserves of
lithium carbonate and lithium chloride would be required to equip each
of the world's 800 million cars and trucks with a relatively small, 8
kWh battery pack. GM's Volt concept car is powered by a 16 kWh lithium
battery pack. In his view, this is unsustainable. Instead, Tahil is
proposing that two other well-understood battery chemistries be more
actively investigated and developed: sodium nickel chloride and
zinc-air, both of which offer comparable or greater energy density
than lithium without the attendant safety or resource depletion
issues. After iron, aluminium and copper, zinc is the most commonly
used metal by modern society. A 2005 USGS estimate placed American
zinc reserves a 30,000,000 metric tons and world reserves, excluding
the US, at 220 million metric tons. Tahil estimates total world
lithium metal reserves at just 6,200,000 metric tons.