Martin Lee of Best Electric Vehicle YouTube Channel continues his ABC of EVs series by taking a look at Cobalt – an important component of many EV batteries.
Much of the world’s Cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa. Australia is another major supplier.
Unfortunately there are issues about the ethics of the supply chain in DRC with much of the cobalt coming from manual ‘artisinal mining’ with poor, unsafe working conditions and some evidence of child labour.
Many EVs have therefore been looking for cobalt supplies from countries other than DRC, and also looking at alternative battery chemistries that require less or no cobalt.
Tesla, for example, has almost eliminated the use of cobalt in its batteries.