How Push For Electric Cars Endangers National Security

By: Paul Gilbert
April 28, 2023

Ford Motor Company recently announced it’s set to lose more than $6 billion on its latest electric vehicle plants while it gets them running, with the company CEO saying “we cannot continue to import batteries and rare earth from overseas.”

“We can build all the plants, but what’s the good if we’re importing batteries?” he continued, highlighting U.S. mine closures and global shortages of the rare earths required for the batteries that power these cars.

Joe Biden declared war on fossil fuels on his first day in office. The federal government has adopted numerous policies to swiftly move our nation away from gas-powered vehicles to all-electric ones.

Yet the Biden administration appears entirely unaware of the hard realities of such a major infrastructure shift. In a recent congressional hearing, Biden Interior Secretary Deb Haaland couldn’t answer basic questions about the dearth of crucial materials for EVs due to foreign monopolies on mining and the administration’s antipathy to U.S. energy independence.

Due to government subsidies and regulations, electric car manufacturers are popping up in the U.S. to construct multibillion-dollar assembly plants planned to turn out 150,000 to 250,000 electric vehicles (EVs) per year. Electric battery plants are co-locating to produce the massive batteries for these EVs, aided by federal and state incentives. Batteries account for 20-40 percent of an EV’s cost.

Battery manufacturers initially believed government anti-gas policies would create an unprecedented business opportunity and enable them to meet the EV manufacturers’ needs. But it has become apparent that the battery manufacturers may not control their own destinies. Sourcing the rare-earth elements in the quantities necessary to stamp “Made in America!” on those enormous batteries may mean these billions of dollars being shuffled around will go toward producing far fewer cars than currently promised. That means the entire enterprise could be another giant taxpayer-sponsored boondoggle.

China Monopolizes Key Inputs for EV Batteries

EV batteries require nine elements, here listed in order of proportion: graphite, aluminum, nickel, copper, steel, manganese, cobalt, lithium, and iron. Almost all of these elements that will be needed in massive quantities to produce a U.S. electric-vehicle boom are controlled by foreign countries, especially the top U.S. adversary, China. Mining is a major business operation that requires years to develop, at high business risk, and the United States controls few of the needed raw materials for EVs.

China mines and refines 82 percent of the world’s graphite. It also consumes one-third of the graphite extracted by the world’s next largest supplier, Madagascar. There has been no graphite mining in the United States since the 1950s, and plans for opening any mine are far off.

China produces nearly 60 percent of the world’s aluminum, and all other producers pale in comparison. Aluminum is used in an enormous number of product applications, and almost all of the U.S. needs are met by imports, primarily from Canada. But it’s likely only China can provide the quantities necessary for mass EV battery production. Potential increased production from South America is meeting stiff environmental opposition.

Approximately 50 percent of the world’s available nickel is mined in Indonesia and Australia, with several other countries providing the bulk of the balance, including Russia. The United States’ sole nickel mine will be exhausted by 2026, so all processed nickel for EVs must be imported unless the federal government approves building another, which will take years to get running.

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