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Woah! We're back home

Yeah, sorry about that, but you now see that although electric cars don't produce emissions, producing the parts needed for them create a lot of unnecessary pollution and harm valuable areas in the world.

How so?

Well, there are a lot of reasons why, but the biggest reason is probably because how harmful the lithium-ion batteries from the car is to the environment.

Why don't I just show you?

AAAAHHHHHH! Where are we?!?

Haha, we're in Argentina near the Andean Mountain Range, which is the biggest lithium mining area in the world.

But...but...what are we doing here?

I'm going to show you how a lithium-ion battery, which is the type of battery used in electric cars, is produced. First, you need to harvest the needed materials, and by the name, you can tell that lithium is a main component, which is why we're here. Let me show you around.

These lithium mines are usually in desert regions of the Andean Mountain Range, which are already the driest areas on the planet. These mines can consume as much as 65% of the area's existing water supply, and I think you can realize that if so much water is used in an already dry area, that area is going to dry up even more, making it even more inhabitable for plants and animals.

Hmm, interesting. What about the other materials that need to be harvested to make the batteries?

Nice! Water!

WAIT!!!!

Huh?? What's wrong?

This water runs by a cobalt mine, and it could have been contaminated with wastes and sulfuric acid. You surely don't want to play around in that!

Why would they contaminate such a valuable water source like that?

They're doing what is necessary to harvest cobalt, which like lithium is a main component in producing lithium-ion batteries. These companies just want to make profit, and that means that the environment suffers.

It is a big shame that there is nothing to protect the plants and animals that get affected by the pollution from the mines. The more frustrating thing is that these materials need to be processed even more before getting used to assemble the batteries.

Here is a factory where they process both lithium and cobalt for the batteries. I've read that producing these batteries account for 10-75% of the energy and 10-70% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the ENTIRE production process for electric cars.

Even more, the European Environment Agency, or EEA, discovered that producing electric cars emit 1.3-2 times more greenhouse gases than combustion cars. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

Yo, look at this new car I got. It's fully electric, so it's so much better for the environment. It's nice isn't it?

It is really nice... But electric cars aren't that much better for the environment than combustion cars.

Yeah, I understand the reason a bit more now. What should I do with my car? Do I trade it in for a normal combustion car?

No, there is no need to trade it in. Electric cars are definitely the future. I just wanted to show you that electric cars are not all perfect at the moment, but with improvements in all aspects, I think that the whole production process can come very close to creating zero emissions and be 100% clean.