The Electric Car And Its Renewable Source Of Energy Joke

From the environmental left, all we ever hear is that we need to dump our dependence on finite energy resources like oil, coal, and natural gas.  To them, renewable electrical energy from wind and solar is the key to our future. Further, they envision a world of electric cars that would take advantage of all that wind and solar produced electricity.

But, there's a big flaw in their thinking, and, that flaw is the survivability of the lithium ion battery that is used to power the electric car.  You see, lithium is not renewable. It is finite; and, millions of more times more finite than the fuels that it was intended to replace.

Today, lithium is used to make batteries for everything portable.  Because of this, the current demand is growing at 25% per year while production is only increasing by about 4-to-5% per year.  This imbalance will eventually mean a shortage in lithium.  Some experts say this could happen as early as 2015.  The same experts say there's only enough high quality lithium product to produce 1.5 million electric cars like the Chevy Volt.  Because demand has been so high and production much slower, the price of lithium has tripled since 2000.  If by 2015, demand does outstrip production, expect prices to soar; and, when that happens, a replacement battery for your 2010 or later Volt could  zoom to $15,000 or more.  Of course, this high cost will just cause a used Volt's resale value to literally collapse. Then, too, a new Chevy Volt might cost $50,000 or more in just three years.

The only thing saving lithium from shortages is the fact that electric cars aren't selling as fast as expected.  Therefore, the doomsday of 2015 might have been pushed out to years later.

You see, the electric car isn't quite as renewably powered  as the environmental left would lead you to believe.

References:

IPad Boom Strains Lithium Supplies After Prices Triple: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-19/ipad-boom-strains-lithium-supplies-after-prices-triple.html

Electric Cars and Lithium Reserves: Only Enough For 1.5 Million Volts: http://gm-volt.com/2008/11/01/electric-cars-and-lithium-reserves-only-enough-for-15-million-chevy-volts/