The Earth does not have enough minerals to cope with the complete transition to electric cars, says Stellantis CEO

Carlos Tavarez, CEO of the Stellantis group, which includes brands such as Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Alfa Romeo and Lancia, made some bold statements at a press event organized by his company in the US. The main concern he expressed to the press is that the planet Earth simply does not have enough mineral resources to make the complete switch, globally, to electric cars.

Photo: Carlos Tavarez, CEO of the Stellantis group

He referred in particular to lithium, but also to other rare materials needed especially for batteries in electric cars, such as cobalt. Tavarez backed up his claim by pointing out that there are currently 1.3 billion internal combustion cars in the world and if we needed to replace them all, even over a long period of time, the amount of lithium we would need would be greater than that available for extraction. And not only lithium could be insufficient. The concentration of lithium mining activities could create other major geopolitical problems, says Tavarez. And here we can remember the annuncement made two days ago by Mercedes about their strategic moves to secure lithium resources that are less dependent on China.

At the same time, Tavarez said that his statements do not come as an excuse or a preparation for a possible non-compliance of his company with the emission targets he has assumed. The group's brands will switch to electric cars in the terms they previously announced, the head of Stellantis assured the public. But Tavarez says he's frustrated that only one technology has been singled out as the right one, and that can create a major imbalance in the future.

Photo: The prototype of a future Dodge electric muscle car

He wanted to bring the recent example of the European Union, which accepted the introduction of exceptions for synthetic fuels form its 2025 ICE ban, as one of the brilliant technologies, which should be encouraged everywhere on the world map. Because if industries were encouraged to innovate in the production of fuels that can emit CO2, but only that CO2 that they previously extract in their manufacturing process, resulting in a final amount of absolute zero, then there would be much competition higher for it, and finally all the cars that are already produced, with internal combustion engines, could have a longer life without pollution, if they use these climate-neutral synthetic fuels.

Photo: Cars produced many years ago could use synthetic fuel without the need for engine modifications.

This synthetic fuel, currently produced in small factories, such as the one inaugurated by Porsche in Chile, is currently very expensive, at 10 dollars per liter, or 40 dolllaris per gallon, but moving to a large scale and competition always brings lower production costs, and what Tavarez says about these synthetic fuels is as justified as possible, or, we explained in detail how the production and the achievement of zero emissions of these fuels work. Tavarez also wanted to remind why electric cars are so expensive, giving a simple explanation — the limited mineral resources, for which they fight more and more intensely. Their price is high and volatile because they are few and their extraction is expensive — added Tavarez.

However, there are also opinions that say that there is, in fact, a lot of lithium in the world, only that its extraction has not yet reached the desired scale, comparable to this demand. Lithium is rarely found in pure form, but in combinations of rocks, such as spodumene — a mineral that is a natural silicate of lithium and aluminum — is much more widespread globally. At the same time, major problems periodically appear in places where lithium is extracted in large quantities, such as Chile, which indicate great deficiencies in the way these deposits and extracts are managed. And, after all, as long as a solution is based on a finite mineral anyway, other solutions are probably worth looking into.

Photo: Lithium extraction in Chile