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 main container typically uses a mix of aluminium or steel, and also plastic. The individual battery cells within the module need protection from heat and vibration, so a number of resins are used to provide mechanical reinforcement to the cells within the module: Demounted battery from electric car Nissan Leaf.
Recycling and reusing batteries can provide some relief to the mining process but the technology surrounding it is still inefficient. Currently, Japanese car manufacturer, Nissan reuses the batteries from its EVs to power the automated guided vehicles in factories. Similarly, Volkswagen and Renault have set up recycling plants for batteries.
In general, a battery cell is made up of an anode, cathode, separator and electrolyte which are packaged into an aluminium case. The positive anode tends to be made up of graphite which is then coated in copper foil giving the distinctive reddish-brown color.
The battery pack’s housing container will use a mix of aluminium or steel, and also plastic (just like the modules).
Data for this graph was retrieved from Lifecycle Analysis of UK Road Vehicles – Ricardo Furthermore, producing one tonne of lithium (enough for ~100 car batteries) requires approximately 2 million tonnes of water, which makes battery production an extremely water-intensive practice.