About 40 percent of the climate impact from the production of lithium-ion batteries comes from the mining and processing of the minerals needed. Mining and refining of battery materials, and manufacturing of the cells, modules and battery packs requires significant amounts of energy which generate greenhouse gases emissions.
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.
According to the Wall Street Journal, lithium-ion battery mining and production are worse for the climate than the production of fossil fuel vehicle batteries. Production of the average lithium-ion battery uses three times more cumulative energy demand (CED) compared to a generic battery. The disposal of the batteries is also a climate threat.
It depends exactly where and how the battery is made—but when it comes to clean technologies like electric cars and solar power, even the dirtiest batteries emit less CO2 than using no battery at all. Updated July 15, 2022
Thirdly, the development of new breakthrough battery technologies, such as solid-state Lithium-Sulphur and Lithium-Air batteries (Manthiram et al., 2017), Na-ion (European et al., 2020), etc., may create radical changes in battery production processes and relevant materials supply chains.
Batteries ending up in landfills add to the environmental footprint. While manufacturing has the biggest footprint, powering batteries also contributes to environmental degradation, especially in developing economies like India. This is because the source of electricity used to power them determines how eco-friendly an EV really is.