Powering the Future 2025

2 A lack of transparency pervades the EVB value chain. This often obscures the environmental and social impacts of EVB materials sourcing and manufacturing to the end of life and prevents the mitigation of, and accountability for, these impacts. The current EVB value chain is both geographically concentrated and dispersed: a small number of countries dominates each segment of the EVB value chain, requiring minerals to travel tens of thousands of miles. Economically viable deposits of required minerals are found in just a handful of countries – primarily Australia and Chile in the case of lithium, Indonesia for nickel and the Democratic Republic of Congo for cobalt.11 These minerals typically travel to China for processing and manufacturing into cell components before being assembled into EVs in China, Europe or the United States (US).12 In total, minerals often travel more than 50,000 nautical miles from the mine to the battery- cell factory.13 This complexity and geographic distribution, coupled with a lack of harmonized regulations, contributes to an opaque EV value chain – and that opacity can mask and perpetuate the environmental impacts and social inequity associated with battery materials. 2.1 Lack of transparency across the full value chain Concerns about today’s battery value chain Business-as-usual practices threaten the resilience and efficiency of the EV battery value chain and carry environmental and social risk. Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity 10