Phil Dart

Since you’re interested and in summary - Earth Processed: For one EV, approximately 500-1000 tons of hard rock ore or 70,000 liters of lithium brine needs to be processed to extract enough lithium (10-20 kg). - Lithium Refinement: The raw lithium is refined through chemical processes, including crushing, flotation, heating, leaching, and purification, to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, which are battery-grade materials. - Lithium Shipment: Once refined, lithium compounds are packaged in secure containers and shipped via freight trucks, rail, or ships under strict hazardous material regulations. By comparison, extracting and refining gasoline from crude oil also involves significant amounts of raw material, energy, and logistics, though the process differs from lithium extraction. In summary: - Crude Oil Processing: About 0.6 barrels of crude oil is processed to fill a 12-gallon gas tank, and 25 barrels are required for one vehicle’s annual gasoline consumption. - Gasoline Refinement: Crude oil is refined into gasoline through distillation, cracking, reforming and blending, producing about 19-20 gallons of gasoline per barrel of oil. - Gasoline Shipment: Once refined, gasoline is transported via pipelines, tanker trucks, and sometimes ships to distribution points, and finally to gas stations for consumer use. In comparison to lithium for EVs, gasoline production also requires the extraction of large amounts of natural resources, significant energy inputs, and complex transportation logistics, making both industries resource-intensive in different ways. You’ll be glad to know that the EU demands the declaration of the carbon footprint on all batteries as part of the battery passporting regulations thus bringing transparency to this comparison. Ultimately, over life of a car, including its manufacturing, distribution, running and recycling, an EV will always have a lower carbon footprint than an ICE; that is not a myth, that is fact.