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Just Dean's avatar

Dr. Gill Pratt, chief scientist at Toyota, has been talking about the medium term lithium scarcity for a couple years. He claims it is part of the reason they have been slow to go all in on EVs, https://insideevs.com/news/650150/toyota-says-ev-extremists-are-wrong/ . I could be biased, I own a Toyota plug-in hybrid. To his point, plug-in hybrids use about 1/6 of the lithium and have similar lifecycle emissions to EVs, https://www.carboncounter.com/#!/explore . Maybe Toyota knows what they're doing after all.

I continue to contend that instead of dictating technology, e.g., percentage of EVs, government policy should be setting guidelines for lifecycle emissions and let manufacturers and innovation determine the right mix of technologies.

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Michael Magoon's avatar

I am not sure that this article really gets to the heart of the matter regarding Green energy and raw materials.

I think the biggest concern in this area is a sudden price spike of critical raw materials due to demand getting close to supply. This happens frequently with oil and gas. Given the long time it takes to open up new mines, this could make Green energy far more expensive for a decade. I have no doubt supply will eventually adjust, but that is a long time.

Given that there are only 26 years to get to Net Zero in 2050, this one factor could derail the whole Green energy agenda.

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