I always knew there will be a catch to this electric car thing. We hear that they’re looking for more lithium to make the cars run faster and longer (and become heavier) which means they will spend more on mines for lithium. Lithium, the component that is used in those batteries, have become more expensive because the camps that produce those components are in parts of the world that need better attention, including Namibia and Zimbabwe in Africa, and somehow they do not have enough of lithium and China is using up the majority of the thing. What is China not using more than everyone else ? (The answer to that question might be liberal democracy.
But we’re not complaining, are we? Nigerians, we are not complaining how we?)
So it’s intriguing to find that fossil fuels– that is, those fuels comprising oil and coal and all those things that are not cow dung– are getting out of fashion, if we follow the literature. ‘Going out of fashion’ has to be used in inverted commas, as any little challenge to the supply of energy in the West makes them revive coal mines for energy supply. You can see an example in Germany and other European countries since the quarrels between NATO and Putin over who should bomb Ukrainians without remorse.
To get more lithium that would be used in producing batteries for electric cars means you have to mine more. But a lithium mine also requires large expenditure of money and lives for about 19 years before the lithium mine begins to produce lithium. Can you imagine how many litres of innocent human blood that would entail? Mining lithium leads to increase in salt in rivers and toxicity of soil. The environment may also lose water altogether, because one tonne of lithium need 2 million litres of water. So, since the Gurara Dam that supplies all of Abuja has the capacity of 720 million litres per day, production of 360 tonnes of lithium will use up all of that water. Of course, when you mine lithium in countries like Australia, which is said to have the second largest reserves, there is not as much of exploitation and violence required as you would in Third World countries. But, the recent developments around Ukraine throw up interesting perspectives that would shock those international journalists that compared the humanitarian crises in that country following Russian invasion to situations they only see in Third World countries: Ukraine also has significant deposits of lithium. And guess where the deposits are said to be in: Mariupol! Yes, the popular one in Donbass Region where many of the bombing campaigns have taken place from all sides to the conflict. You can see that the international conflicts never happen over sand! There is always something more at stake beyond what the IBBs tell you (I mean, IBB-International Big Boys).
On the more worrying side, now that lithium batteries are scarce, we are told that we need up to 60 more lithium mines by the year 2030 for it to make sense that we are now using electric cars. We also use the lithium to produce laptop batteries and those for phones. This is why it is a very scarce commodity, especially because Nigerians use two or three phones at a time. Don’t you think so? And, in the middle of all the scarcity, as expected, the price of lithium has skyrocketed to something in the region of 70,000 dollars per tonne. A tonne is 1000 kg so that comes to $70 per kg. Therefore, are electric cars going to really make sense as a way of being environmentally sustainable? I don’t know the answer to this. But who am I to pose these questions and not attempt to sound intelligent by providing some answers so here is my time to shine.
First thing I think about when we talk about environmental sustainability of electric cars is: didn’t we know it takes electricity from fossil fuels to actually charge these batteries? I mean, as you can see, our phones and laptops are charged by NEPA or more by generators, not solar. So if oil or coal is running out of fashion, abeg who is actually going to be charging those batteries? Not the sun all the time, because that one is getting tired being the only one in the galaxy always called upon for this assignment. And come to think of it electric vehicles are very heavy and if they’re very heavy then they will not be efficient in terms of how far they can go on one charge. So, Elon Musk, I really will need to ask you some questions about this whole thing you’re talking about EV’s. Will they really change the environment in terms of saving the it or are they going to create more problems?
And trust me if you bring these electric vehicles business to Nigeria in large numbers, do get ready to sweep used the batteries on the floor because there will be no place to dispose of them, and because we are not used to recycling stuff, big men find it more fulfilling and more of a status symbol to throw them anywhere that we don’t want. Look at how they dispose of their chewing gum on the road on the highway; somebody is chewing a gum and just flings it out through the window. It’s like the sanest (or replace with silliest) thing to do for in Nigeria upper class person is to properly dispose of trash.
This means that while Elon Musk is trying to sort out where he’s going to borrow money from to buy Twitter, he really now needs to look for money to buy batteries. And this is not these regular Alkaline batteries; they are real batteries, very expensive stuff. You know, “big man, big trouble”. I love it. And what I said above in terms of the price of lithium going to 70,000 dollars per tonne means that there will be a lot of demand that cannot be met and even Elon Musk might not be sure of getting supply. His Tesla cars are said to require as much as 860 kg of lithium batteries for each vehicle, meaning batteries alone cost $60,200, or around N36m at an exchange rate of about N600 to a dollar. Only batteries! The World Economic Forum (whose job is to make you buy electric vehicles) says an EV has 8 kg of lithium, which will come to just $560 on lithium. Anyway, those of you who have non electric vehicles don’t go throwing them away yet in the hope that you can buy electric vehicles. In Nigeria, there is no electricity so if you buy an electric car you are not going to be able to drive it beyond metropoles of Abuja and Lagos.
Finally, an electric vehicle, because of the weight and all that we have discussed would need two times more energy to go at the same speed with a car that uses fossil fuels. Thus, while I am liking the idea of this electric car thing, it is not sounding like something I would love to have soon. Let me not come and buy liability; I no dey. It is like in the early days of GSM revolution in Nigeria when companies bought phones for their top employees, but the excited employees later realised that recharging the phones with airtime took substantial proportions of their incomes. No recharge card was less than N1,500 then in 2001, and calls were charged at about N400 per minute with no option per second billing. That meant that a N1,500 recharge at the time could allow you just 3 minutes of talk, when an Igala person wouldn’t have finished greeting their kinsman. Frustration almost set in. That was at a time when the dollar was exchanging for around N100, about one-sixth of what it is today. In today’s Nigeria, it would be like buying recharge of N9000 and being only able to talk for 3 minutes. Haba! Pity us.
