The manufacturing process begins with building the chassis using a combination of aluminium and steel; emissions from smelting these remain the same in both ICE and EV. However, the environmental impact of battery production begins to change when we consider the manufacturing process of the battery in the latter type.
The World Economic Forum's Global Battery Alliance notes two major challenges: "First, raw materials needed for batteries are extracted at a high human and environmental toll. This includes, for example, child labour, health and safety hazards in informal work, poverty and pollution.
The materials required for EV battery manufacturing cause a number of environmental impacts, though, and are of concern. In the cases of lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements, the world’s top 3 producers control well over three-quarters of global output.
Indeed, there are questions around battery production and resource depletion, but perhaps more concerning is the impact that mining lithium and other materials for the growing battery economy, such as graphite, will have on the health of workers and communities involved in this global production network.
Understanding the environmental impact of electric vehicle batteries is crucial for a low-carbon future. This study examined the energy use and emissions of current and future battery technologies using nickel-manganese-cobalt and lithium-iron-phosphate.
Mining these materials, however, has a high environmental cost, a factor that inevitably makes the EV manufacturing process more energy intensive than that of an ICE vehicle. The environmental impact of battery production comes from the toxic fumes released during the mining process and the water-intensive nature of the activity.