The Oil Drum: Europe | Minerals scarcity: A call for managed austerity and the elements of hope

198 comments on Minerals scarcity: A call for managed austerity and the elements of hope

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Andre Diederen on May 6, 2009 - 3:26am

"Accordingly, electric vehicles have less of a choke point than internal combustion vehicles, as there is no one mineral or fuel that is key."

I understand what you are saying. But the point is that you have to consider the implications of metals scarcity in its complete context: if there is a growing gap between production flow rates and demand across a large spectrum of metals simultaneously in the next few decades, than there is no "safe haven" to substitute one specific metal with the other specific metal. You might get a cascade of multiple and simultaneuos substitutions where everyone is chasing after the same set of metals. So for instance there might be a large demand simultaneously for every metal suitable to make accumulators for electric vehicles, amongst others lithium, nickel, cadmium, zinc, lead.

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FMagyar on May 6, 2009 - 7:20am

Why are we stuck on the idea that cars can only be made of metals?
Sure there are some parts that probably are best suited to manufacture from metals such as copper in electric motors but renewables and composites could also play a part.
1854 - Henricg Globel, a German watchmaker, invented the first true lightbulb. He used a carbonized bamboo filament placed inside a glass bulb. ...

Electric Bamboo car