What will be addressed?

• facts & figures on Europe’s current and future battery raw material demand
• implications of the (actual) supply shortages on the competitiveness / price development of EV batteries (and its components)
• instruments, strategies and approaches to diversify or reduce Europe’s import and supply needs

To discuss these issues, moderator Mischa Bechberger (VDI/VDE-IT) welcomes  (Benchmark Mineral Intelligence) and Siyamend Al Barazi (German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA), Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, BGR) to this Battery Live Talk. We will debate the supply needs and challenges of an emerging European battery industry, strategies to mitigate its high raw material dependency and what role recycling and circular economy can play in this respect.

The current shortage of semiconductors in the automotive industry is causing serious delays in automobile production. Moreover, also battery production for electric cars is threatened by supply bottlenecks, due to the ramp-up of electric mobility. Important battery raw materials like nickel, copper, lithium, graphite and aluminum are likely to become scarce. This leads to rising raw material prices and thus to a slowdown in the price decline of batteries.

In Europe, this situation is exacerbated by a high dependence on imports for most battery raw materials – 100% for lithium and 98% for natural graphite according to the EU Commission). At the same time the corresponding demand will increase significantly by 2030: for lithium by a factor of 15 and for graphite by more than a factor of 3.

Battery recycling and circularity approaches can contribute to reduce this dependency. However, the development of new or the reactivation of old European mining capacities, as recommended in the Action Plan of the newly founded European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA), will be equally important.