As Europe prepares to formally approve a new regulation to improve the durability of batteries used in electric vehicles, independent research centre SOMO has published a report showing the huge projected increase in "gigafactories" to produce these units of energy. These gigantic factories will consume large quantities of non-renewable resources, mainly extracted in the Global South. The production capacity of these lithium-ion battery "gigafactories" is expected to increase eightfold between 2021 and 2031, mainly in the United States, the European Union and China.
Incoherent policy
"Electric vehicles are part of the solution to climate change. But the sheer size and volume of EV production is not sustainable," says SOMO expert Alejandro González. "Europe regulates batteries with one hand, but stimulates the demand for minerals for those same batteries with the other; This policy is inconsistent. The vast majority of electric vehicles to be produced over the next seven years will be sold to consumers in the U.S., Europe and China, and will exclude most of the rest of the world. "Europe has an opportunity to seize: to avoid being responsible for the abuses and deep inequalities in the energy transition. But that opportunity is slipping away," González concludes.
- Car
- Europe
- Electric car
- Research
- Energy transition
- Factory