I hope battery technology improves significantly in the next 10 years or so.
There's some interesting dramas around batteries needing Cobalt - who the 'Democratic' Republic of Congo are the world's major supplier of Cobalt required in lithium ion batteries (much like Australia supplies most of the worlds lithium).
There was a lawsuit filed in the USA in 2019 targeting the major tech companies and Tesla over using slave/child labour from the DRC:
Quote:
Legal Argument
IRAdvocates, a US-based NGO, filed a federal class action lawsuit against Apple, Google, Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 plaintiffs who are either guardians of children killed in tunnel or walls collapses while mining cobalt in the DRC, or are children who were maimed in such accidents. All plaintiffs are representative of a larger class of unnamed children who have faced similar injuries from mining hazards. All defendants make up a large portion of buyers in the cobalt market. The plaintiffs assert claims for forced child labour in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. They also seek relief based on common law claims of unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They request that the Court order the defendants to create a fund to contribute to the appropriate medical care of the plaintiffs and other unnamed children who were injured while mining cobalt.
In their motion to dismiss, the companies contend that under the definitions contained in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), “an entire global supply chain is not a ‘venture’”. The companies further claim that the maimed and dead child miners were not “forced” into labour which they said only encompasses labour that is compelled by direct threats of force or harm from the employer, and not labour that is compelled by other circumstances, such as economic pressure. Finally, the companies claim they did not have “requisite knowledge” of the abuses at the specific mining sites mentioned, and that “knowledge of a general problem in an industry...is insufficient” to prove they knew about the violations that had injured the plaintiffs.
Legal Proceeding
On 15 December 2019, plaintiffs filed a class action in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against Apple, Alphabet, Google, Dell, and Tesla.
On 25 August 2020, the defendants filed a motion in response, denying liability.
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https://www.business-humanrights.org...ld-labour-drc/
Anyone who subscribes to Nebula, this is worth a watch:
https://nebula.app/videos/real-engin...ortage-problem
It talks about supply chain issues around manufacturing batteries for EVs from minerals perspective, nickel, lithium iron, cobalt etc.
Australia is probably in a good place to capitalise on this opportunity if we're smart, but we're a nation of morons who can't see past a 3 year election cycle so we'll probably let this pass by us
