A worker assembles Volkswagen electric cars at the company's plant in Zwickau, Germany on Jan. 27. Automakers like Volkswagen are racing to secure enough metals to power the batteries needed to make electric vehicles. Companies are betting hundreds of billions of dollars on electric cars and trucks. To make them, they'll need a lot of batteries. And that means they need a lot of minerals, like lithium, cobalt and nickel, to be dug up out of the earth.
It's not just profits on the line. Climate experts say the world needs to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles quickly to limit the worst effects of climate change. "We like to say we're in competition with China, but it verges on to the point of conflict," says Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
But in the U.S., many communities are understandably reluctant to allow a new mine or refinery to open. This is a major shift for automakers who typically rely on a network of suppliers who deliver the parts and components they need exactly when they want them. That's like buying ice cream from the store today, because you want it now.
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