At an energy security panel held Thursday, alternative-fuel advocates and security experts wrestled over the feasibility of getting 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on American roads by 2015, a goal Barack Obama set while campaigning for the presidency. ———- Right, salt field conceals untapped lithium carbonate reserve, Bolivia. ———- Cheap, light, high-performance batteries are needed to make electric cars widely available. But mass-producing these batteries requires a steady stream of certain minerals, and the availability of these minerals left one expert doubtful of Obama's goal. “If we're not going to address the materials requirements for the batteries, there will not be an electric future,” said Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. “You make bread, you can have all the flour in the world … if you don't have the yeast, you will not have the bread.” Meeting Obama's goal, he calculated, would take about 6,000 tons of lithium carbonate – a massive share of the 15,000 tons used worldwide each year. Many have considered lithium a strategic “green” commodity, since lithium-ion batteries have gained attention as a possible low-cost option for cars. Bolivia has about a third of the world's reserves of lithium – and frigid relations with the United States, Luft noted. He also cited “rare earth” elements, a family of metals that find their way into various products, including computers and
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Experts Differ on America’s Ability to Put 1M Plug-in Hybrids on U.S. Roads by 2015
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