Material flow analysis and regional greenhouse gas emissions associated to permanent magnets and batteries used in electric vehicles

Clean technologies are rapidly increasing in the last decade. In the transport sector, market share of global electric car sales has changed from 0.0 % in 2010 to 3.2 % (2.1million) in 2020, and predictions show that sales could reach near 30 % in 2030. This drastic change is mainly encouraged by environmental goals set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) expressed in CO2-eq, not emitted by electric vehicles (EVs) during the use phase. However, clean technologies might cause other impacts during manufacture and, while clearly reduce the dependency on oil, can increase the dependency on other materials. In this context, the objectives of our work are quantifying the critical raw materials needed by permanents magnets and batteries of EVs (neodymium, lithium, and cobalt); their supply risk, performing a material flow analysis; and studying their environmental impacts using the methodology Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis. This methodology is used to quantify the produced impacts and the country where the impacts are being produced, in contrast to conventional methodol-ogies that only calculate global impacts. Therefore, environmental impacts are estimated considering different scenarios, based on environmental objectives of the European Union and China. In most scenarios China shows a key role in mining and processing of metals, being the country where major impacts are produced. Obtained results are useful to assess which environmental proposals are more effective to reduce the environmental impact of EVs and set the ground to understand the geostrategic importance of key metals used for EVs manufacture.

Automated summary

Clean technologies, particularly electric vehicles, have seen significant growth in the past decade. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions, these technologies may have other environmental impacts and increase reliance on certain materials. This study aims to evaluate the supply risk and environmental impacts of critical raw materials used in electric vehicles, and to identify effective environmental proposals to mitigate these impacts.