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As other have pointed out, the amount of lithium that needs to be extracted is much smaller than the amount of oil that is already being extracted.

An EV battery will use around 8-16kg of lithium that should last for the life of the car. Then the battery can be recycled. Current recycling programs can recover around 95% of the lithium. Over time, the demand for lithium will reach a much lower volume than oil.



It's always a good idea to just flat out compare the mass of alternatives.

A tank of gasoline weighs more than the lithium in an EV battery. The entire battery weighs as much as 10 tanks of gas. And 20 some kg of lithium is way less than the 1000kg of steel that goes into making a car.


And then you can look at the many, many kilograms of gasoline that would be extracted to fuel an ICEV vs the 20kg of lithium used for the life of an EV.




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