An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. The vehicle can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or can be powered autonomously by a battery or by converting fuel to electricity using a generator or fuel cells. EVs include road and rail vehicles, electric boats and underwater vessels, electric aircraft and electric spacecraft.
The automotive industry inmainland China has been the largest in the world measured by automobile unit production since 2008. As of 2024, mainland China is also the world's largest automobile market both in terms of sales and ownership.
The lithium iron phosphate battery or LFP battery is a type of lithium-ion battery using lithium iron phosphate as the cathode material, and a graphitic carbon electrode with a metallic backing as the anode. Because of their low cost, high safety, low toxicity, long cycle life and other factors, LFP batteries are finding a number of roles in vehicle use, utility-scale stationary applications, and backup power. LFP batteries are cobalt-free. As of September 2022, LFP type battery market share for EVs reached 31%, and of that, 68% were from EV makers Tesla and BYD alone. Chinese manufacturers currently hold a near monopoly of LFP battery type production. With patents having started to expire in 2022 and the increased demand for cheaper EV batteries, LFP type production is expected to rise further and surpass lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (NMC) type batteries in 2028.
An electric vehicle battery is a rechargeable battery used to power the electric motors of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, with no secondary source of propulsion. BEVs use electric motors and motor controllers instead of internal combustion engines (ICEs) for propulsion. They derive all power from battery packs and thus have no internal combustion engine, fuel cell, or fuel tank. BEVs include – but are not limited to – motorcycles, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, railcars, watercraft, forklifts, buses, trucks, and cars.
The lithium-titanate or lithium-titanium-oxide (LTO) battery is a type of rechargeable battery which has the advantage of being faster to charge than other lithium-ion batteries but the disadvantage is a much lower energy density.
The rare earth industry in China is a large industry. Rare earths are a group of elements on the periodic table with similar properties. Rare earth metals are used to manufacture technologies including electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, consumer electronics and other clean energy technologies. The rare earths cause improved system performance when for example electric battery terminal LiMn2O4 cathodes are doped with them, and it is known that some EVs use lithium-ion batteries such as these. Tesla automobiles "currently uses an lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) chemistry, while lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistries are common across the rest of the EV industry." Vehicle "manufacturers are keen to reduce reliance on rare earths, which like cobalt, suffers from highly concentrated supply and unpredictable pricing, with China holding a virtual global monopoly in primary supply and processing." Leading battery manufacturer Samsung SDI uses this technology for its phone and portable computer batteries.
The electric vehicle industry in China is the largest in the world, accounting for around 58% of global production of electric vehicles (EVs) and more than 1.5 million exports in 2023. In 2023, CAAM reported China had sold 9.05 million passenger electric vehicles, consisting 6.26 million BEVs and 2.79 million PHEV. China also dominates the plug-in electric bus and light commercial vehicle market, reaching over 500,000 buses and 247,500 electric commercial vehicles in 2019, and recording new sales of 447,000 commercial EVs in 2023.
Saft is a French company involved in the design, the development and the manufacturing of batteries used in transport, industry and defense. Headquartered in France, it has an international presence.
Material criticality is the determination of which materials that flow through an industry or economy are most important to the production process. It is a sub-category within the field of material flow analysis (MFA), which is a method to quantitatively analyze the flows of materials used for industrial production in an industry or economy. MFA is a useful tool to assess what impacts materials used in the industrial process have and how efficiently a given process uses them.
The rare earths trade dispute, between China on one side and several countries on the other, was over China's export restrictions on rare earth elements as well as tungsten and molybdenum. Rare earth metals are used to make powerful neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium magnets, defense products and many electronics.
Usage of electric cars damage people’s health and the environment less than similar sized internal combustion engine cars. While aspects of their production can induce similar, less or different environmental impacts, they produce little or no tailpipe emissions, and reduce dependence on petroleum, greenhouse gas emissions, and deaths from air pollution. Electric motors are significantly more efficient than internal combustion engines and thus, even accounting for typical power plant efficiencies and distribution losses, less energy is required to operate an electric vehicle. Manufacturing batteries for electric cars requires additional resources and energy, so they may have a larger environmental footprint in the production phase. Electric vehicles also generate different impacts in their operation and maintenance. Electric vehicles are typically heavier and could produce more tire and road dust air pollution, but their regenerative braking could reduce such particulate pollution from brakes. Electric vehicles are mechanically simpler, which reduces the use and disposal of engine oil.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is a Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company founded in 2011 that specializes in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, as well as battery management systems (BMS). The company is the biggest EV battery manufacturer, with a global market share of around 37% in 2023. The company is headquartered in the city of Ningde in China's Fujian province.
Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd primarily operates as a supplier of cobalt and its associated products, such as cobalt tetroxide, cobalt oxide, cobalt carbonate, cobalt hydroxide, cobalt oxalate, cobalt sulfate, and cobalt monoxide. The company is headquartered in the Tongxiang Economic Development Zone of Zhejiang, China.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence also known as Benchmark Minerals, founded and owned by Simon Moores in 2014, is a London-based Price Reporting Agency (PRA) and specialist information provider for the lithium-ion battery to electric vehicle (EV) supply chain. The company had £11 million in assets as of 2022.
Lithium batteries are batteries that use lithium as an anode. This type of battery is also referred to as a lithium-ion battery and is most commonly used for electric vehicles and electronics. The first type of lithium battery was created by the British chemist M. Stanley Whittingham in the early 1970s and used titanium and lithium as the electrodes. Applications for this battery were limited by the high prices of titanium and the unpleasant scent that the reaction produced. Today's lithium-ion battery, modeled after the Whittingham attempt by Akira Yoshino, was first developed in 1985.
China produced more than 15 billion units of lithium-ion batteries in 2019, which accounts for 73% of the world's 316 gigawatt-hours capacity. China is a significant producer of lithium batteries and electric vehicles, supported by government policies. Lithium-ion batteries produced in China are primarily exported to Hong Kong, the United States, Germany, Korea, and Vietnam. The electric vehicle industry significantly drives the demand for lithium-ion batteries due to their high energy density relative to their weight. In the decade since 2008, the production of lithium batteries has tripled.
Redwood Materials, Inc. is an American company headquartered in Carson City, Nevada. The company aims to recycle lithium-ion batteries and produce battery materials for electromobility and electrical storage systems. Founded in 2017 by J. B. Straubel, Redwood Materials was reported to have a valuation of about $3.7 billion as of July 2021.
The electric vehicle supply chain comprises the mining and refining of raw materials and the manufacturing processes that produce batteries and other components for electric vehicles.
