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The electric vehicle industry must "be the first battery in the world fully ethical with five years," said Thursday Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog. The London-based organization has accused electric automakers of failing to stem human rights abuses, including child labor, related to the extraction of essential minerals needed for the manufacture of batteries.
"Finding effective solutions to the climate crisis is an absolute imperative, and electric cars have an important role to play in this regard," said Amnesty International's Kumi Naidoo. "But without radical changes, the batteries that power the green vehicles will continue to be tainted with human rights violations."
Read more: Race to the unknown but in an electric car
"People or planet"
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the demand for electric cars is expected to skyrocket, increasing by "more than thirty times by 2030". Thus, the demand for lithium – a key component of electronics – is expected to increase significantly over the next decade.
Rights groups accused electronics manufacturers and electric car manufacturers of failing to publicize the mineral supply chain of their products, saying the industry was often implicated in human rights abuses perpetrated in mines, particularly in Argentina and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Companies such as Apple, BMW, Daimler and Renault have been publishing data on their supply chains since 2016. Amnesty International has called on more and more companies to do the same, as far as they are looking to to make the automotive industry a more climate friendly sector.
"Companies that neglect human rights concerns when cleaning up their energy sources present their customers with a false choice: the people or the planet," Naidoo said. "This approach is seriously flawed and will not bring the lasting changes we need to save humanity from the climate devastation."
Read more: Germany invests 58 billion euros in electric and autonomous cars
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
The gigantic project of Northvolt
Led by a former Tesla executive, the Swedish company Northvolt aims to build Europe's largest lithium-ion battery plant, producing 32 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cells annually by 2023 This project valued at $ 4 billion has benefited from a loan will be built in cooperation with the German industrial giant Siemens. Northvolt is the preferred partner of the BMW car manufacturer after the start of production in 2020.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
Tesla in the lead Germany
The American pioneer of the electric car, Tesla, who supplies batteries and batteries from his own Gigafactory, plans to build three other factories of this type to accompany his first in the Nevada desert (photo). CEO Elon Musk has chosen Germany as the location of his European plant. Its Grohmann Automation division, based in Germany, specializes in manufacturing systems for battery installations, giving Tesla a head start.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
CATL sees big in Thuringia
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) president Robin Zeng announced plans to build its first battery cell production site in July in the state of Thuringia, in the east of England. 39; Germany. The Erfurt plant will have a capacity of 14 GWh by 2022, with the BMW automaker having to stock up for 1.5 billion euros of cells. The largest battery manufacturer in China plans to create 600 new jobs in research and elsewhere.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
GSR Capital buys Nissan's bestseller
Chinese investment company GSR Capital has acquired Nissan Motor Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC), including battery manufacturing plants in Japan, the United States and Great Britain. AESC offers cells and modules, and its batteries (shown) power the world's best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf. Under the leadership of GSR, AESC will expand in the UK, hoping to win over more European automakers.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
East-facing locations
The countries of Eastern Europe seem to be favored by the battery manufacturers. Samsung SDI President Jun Young-hyun (left) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (center) opened a new battery factory in Göd in May. Koreans do not manufacture cells in Hungary, but others will. The Japanese GS Yuasa in Miskolc, the Chinese SK Innovations in Komarom (launch 2020) and LG Chem in Wroclaw in Poland (launch 2019 with a capacity of 4 GWh).
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
Subcontracting of builders
German automakers avoid the risk of producing their own battery cells, relying mainly on cells made in Asia, that some of them – like Daimler in Kamenz, Germany 's. Is – bademble in batteries. The luxury automaker will purchase cells for its full range of EQ electric car models, launched in 2020, by SK Innovations and LG Chem.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
Volkswagen is considering cell production
Volkswagen in Germany – the world's largest automaker in terms of sales – still weighs the options. One of them is the production of clean cells in its factory in Salzgitter, Germany. Another alternative to consider at a meeting of the board of directors on the strategy for electric vehicles on Nov. 16 is an alliance with the South Korean cell manufacturer, SK Innovation.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
Simple calculations
Bosch, the largest German automaker, has abandoned its battery cell production project, saying the investment required would be too risky. "Given the dynamic external market forces difficult to predict, it is not clear if this investment would be profitable," said the company after calculating that it should invest 20 billion euros to acquire a share of 20% market.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
TerraE put to dry
Germany's efforts to establish cell production suffered a further setback in October, when TerraE – a consortium of 20 companies – failed. None of the companies cited, including Varta Microbattery Systems, Ford and StreetScooter, ultimately decided to fund the project. Launched in 2017, the idea was to build two foundries with a capacity of 34 GWh by 2028, rivaling the Tesla Gigafactory.
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Production of battery cells: is Germany too late?
Brussels in the lead
Fearing that the European car industry will be left behind, the bloc's energy commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, has launched a "Battery Alliance", offering billions of euros to finance the research and cell manufacturing. The last German record is one of them. Sefcovic thinks that car manufacturing in Europe will be impossible "if you do not master the skills, innovation and research related to batteries".
Author: Uwe Hessler
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