Cleaner, greener EVs might cost more, but they'll help the environment — and the Australian nickel industry

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The Australian nickel industry is in crisis, struggling to hold on as a surge of cheap Indonesian nickel floods the global market and sends prices plummeting.

Both the industry and federal government are searching for answers — and they're looking at Australian driveways.

Plenty of EV-buyers already pay more for an electric car over a petrol one for environmental, not financial, reasons.Australia has enormous deposits of very high-quality nickel, which has been used for a long time to make steel, but more recently has been in demand as part of lithium-ion batteries . Environmental and activist groups have complained of environmental and social impacts, from deforestation and air quality problems to labour rights issues.

But it also wants to pressure electric vehicle manufacturers abroad to think more about the nickel they're using — and pay more for it too. Some EV manufacturers, like Tesla, insist on environmental and social requirements in their nickel contracts. Some argue there are strategic factors to consider when it comes to nickel — and other critical minerals — too.

"They flood the market so that anyone trying to stand up another alternative supply chain, they essentially vanish out of the market.He said there is a pattern of behaviour in nickel and other similar industries."And now currently what we have is oversupply meaning the price in the market is rock bottom low, where many of Australian companies cannot compete."

And she says Australia's higher quality resources should be an advantage, rather than a disadvantage.

 

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