Sustaining Supply Chain Management in Electric Vehicle Battery Industries: Key Factors and Strategies - 7000 words research paper

Sustaining Supply Chain Management in Electric Vehicle Battery Industries: Key Factors and Strategies

EV batteries and lithium

Chapter 1: Introduction

The researcher has developed the research to identify the supply chain process in EV battery industries and how battery industries can make the supply chain process sustainable. In the study, several issues on electric batteries supply chain have been discussed by identifying risky areas where the supply chain process can be hampered. The article has also focused on lithium as it is the main material to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.

1.1: The overview of EV batteries and lithium

Lithium is an essential material of EV batteries as it provides energy and heat while producing electric vehicle batteries. But electric vehicle industries use lithium in various processes so that EV batteries become sustainable. Some future industries such as glass and ceramic companies are also planning to use lithium in future plans. 23% of lithium is used by EV battery industries in the global market where ceramic and glass industries are using 31% of lithium (Awarke and Pischinger, 2020). High-quality lithium is used by technological industries such as battery companies, camera producer companies and laptop manufacturing companies. 

There are two main sources to produce lithium which are lithium containing and lithium minerals. 66% of lithium is produced from lithium containing brines in the global market. Lithium carbonate is also used in producing lithium as it provides low-manufacturing costs for the production of lithium. Lithium is heavily produced in five regions which are Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, China and Brazil (Stanton and Lian, 2020). 

1.3: The aim of the study

The research aims to determine some major factors that can affect the supply chain management's progress in the electric vehicle battery industries. The study's next aim is to find a sustainable supply chain management plan for the electric vehicle battery industries. The research will aim to find some critical issues that can affect the supply of electric batteries in-vehicle battery industries. 

1.4: Objectives

⦁    To examine some life-cycle sustainability of electric vehicle battery industries in terms of supply chain management

⦁    To identify some major factors which can affect the sustainability of supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries

⦁    To identify some major problems in accumulating resources to determine the suitable supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries

1.5: The significance of the study

The research will signify the sustainable development of supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries because vehicle battery industries will require enough resources to produce electric batteries for vehicles. For determining the sustainable management of electric vehicle battery industries, industries must look into sustainability in the environment, economy, and social factors (FLYNN, 2019). These three factors are the biggest factors that can affect the sustainability of the electric vehicle battery industry. 

1.6: Research Questions 

1. What issues and fact that can affect the electric vehicle battery industry's supply chain management industry?

2. What are the risks related to the sustainable management of the supply chain in the electric vehicle battery industries?

3. What new information can be used to solve factors affecting sustainable supply chain management in the electric vehicle battery industries?

4. What are gaps in electric vehicle industries that create effective, sustainable supply chain management problems in different battery companies?

5. What are the sustainability issues of supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries to remove critical environmental effects?

1.7: The application of EV battery

Electronic vehicles are focusing on applying electric battery technologies because experts have considered it as the best option. Therefore, electric vehicle industries are adopting EV batteries at large-scales. It is considered that high-quality lithium use in EV batteries can be a major segment for battery industries. But the lithium supplies should be considered as a raw material while manufacturing EV batteries because it creates sustainability in the transportation sector (Bezha and Nagaoka, 2019). EV batteries made with lithium has higher energy efficient and long lives than hybrid batteries.

But some limitations can be found in EV batteries made with lithium such as thermal management process and manufacturing batteries in high temperatures. At present condition, costing is a great problem while manufacturing EV batteries but it is expected that the cost of lithium and electric batteries will be reduced in the future. It is expected that the production of battery will be the fastest growing industrial product in the global market. The power of battery is becoming extremely essential which is required by digitally connected devices and electric vehicles industries are requiring EV batteries at the most level. But the supply chain process of EV batteries has become complex in the market extremely dangerous materials are using in batteries which is harmful for the environment (Dunn, 2020). The demand for critical raw materials of EV batteries such as lithium, carbon and copper are increasing in EV battery industries.

The cost of batteries will grow up against the market expectations as the demand of raw materials for EV batteries are increasing. Some experts have given their opinions on how EV batteries are growing importance in the market as the transition of low carbon emission is happening due to the adoption of EV batteries in electric vehicles. The maximum output of electric vehicle batteries is manufactured by South Korea and Japan (Rysiecki, 2020). 

1.8: Advancing the value of electric batteries through supply chains

A low carbon economy will require efficient and affordable energy storage and electric batteries are creating values among electronic devices and portable devices as EV batteries are saving lots of energies (Kholrusz, 2020). Therefore, the research and development council of the UK has created a group which is working on measuring the value of electric batteries and making efficiencies in its supply chain process. Many battery industries are working on testing key materials and components which are used in manufacturing EV batteries. 

From electric vehicles to mobile phones and laptop, everywhere the use of electric batteries made with lithium can be seen and the critical mass of supply chain in battery industries can be seen. The battery industries of European market are looking to increase the production of EV batteries through an efficient supply chain process (KOIKE,2020). But for increasing value of EV batteries in the global market, battery industries should look for commercial markets where suppliers are deepening on advanced technologies and commercialisation. Some experts believe these efforts can improve the performance and log time lives of lithium batteries which will be used in electric vehicles. Some innovative groups are working on improving the supply chain process of EV batteries by talking with battery manufacturers, producers and suppliers. 

1.9: Sustainable development in supply chain on EV battery industries

The UK is experiencing a rising progress in selling electric vehicles because electric batteries have changed the landscape of the country in energy storage. Automobile companies in the global market are investing billions to create cost-effective electric batteries which will save costs in manufacturing electric vehicles as well as save energy storage. More than 128,000 electric vehicles have registered in the UK which is using EV batteries made with lithium. Some experts suggested the number of electric batteries in electric vehicles will be raisedup to 36 million within 2040 in the UK (Kushwaha and Singh, 2020).

But the covid-19 pandemic has hampered the sustainable development of supply chain process in electric vehicle battery industries as the supply chain procedure was disrupted due to the lockdown in the global market. But to move into the right direction of sustainable development of EV batteries, some measurements should be taken. Otherwise, it can create problems in the supply chain process of EV batteries (Larson, 2020). The first requirement is that there should be public charging opportunities for electric vehicles which are using electric vehicle batteries. The second requirements is electric batteries don’t sustain too long in electric vehicles and they can’t go too far with just one charge. 

Therefore, EV batteries have focused on these issues and they are working on increasing the battery life time so that electric vehicles can get second life batteries to maintain sustainability. EV battery industries are trying to look for materials which can increase the battery life times and they are talking with suppliers to increase the availability of electric batteries in certain places. 

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1: Considerations of potential supply chain batteries

Sustainable growth is demanded by the transportation sector in manufacturing electric and lithium-on batteries which is economically and environmentally sustainable. Alen (2018) described that transportation sector should consider motivating battery industries to manufacture sustainable batteries by supplying quality raw materials. He discussed that battery industries should track the main function of metal contents which are associated with manufacturing quality electric batteries. If sufficient supplies are created by battery industries, they can expect huge demands of electric batteries. 

According to Thomas (2018), electric vehicle battery industries may face challenges when they rapidly use materials in manufacturing of lithium and electric batteries. Battery has long life times and it can be used for several times through the recycling process. Anna (2017) described that some risks can be found while using materials in electric vehicle batteries as some elements of cobalt are used while manufacturing. She developed a study which can be applied for all battery industries which produce electric batteries. Rapid growth have been found in using electric batteries as it is cheaper for electric vehicles than using fossil fuels. 

Anticipations are created by researchers that the demand of lithium and electric batteries will increase in the future where as these batteries use sustainable materials. Walker (2019) analysed that if electric vehicles rapidly adopted the electric batteries, the demand of electric batteries can surpass the supply. He advised to use materials which are cobalt free so that battery industries can manage supply issues. Investigations of research on supply chain issues on electric vehicles battery industries can identify ways to the availability of electric materials in the future. 

Simon (2018) demonstrated that future investigations should require in electric vehicle battery industries to understand the impact of operational and technological changes in values and costs of electric batteries. But he also found continuous growth in his investigations on the use of electric and lithium batteries in electric vehicles.Duncan and Wood (2019) applied different models to investigate supply chain issues in battery industries by considering its growth and developments. But developments in supply chain in battery industries will require potential concerns on the supply chain management and also map demand of required materials for manufacturing batteries.

2.2: Priorities to improve the electric vehicle battery supply chain

Hopper (2019) tried to describe all aspects which can define sustainable supply chains for electric vehicle battery by addressing all risks which are associated with rights of people, environmental policies, corruption, economic factors and governmental policies etc. He identified that environmental concerns can affect the long-term progress of the ability to produce electric vehicle batteries. Sullivan (2019) addressed that EV batteries should be produced according to climate needs to adopt the sustainable supply chain of batteries. Batteries are boycotted by the transportation sector which is manufactured from fossil fuels as fossil fuels have negative impacts on human health and environmental factors. 

The government and the civil society are growing their concerns over using limited batteries and remanufacturing of EV batteries. According to Ted (2018), these concerns are required over EV batteries as it can manage conflicts over issues of using effective EV batteries and the growth of supply chain in batteries between battery industries and the authority. EV battery industries are taking many initiatives and standards during the promotion of the sustainability of the supply chain in EV batteries. But the data sharing process is weak in many EV battery production companies as the management of lack of coordination in the supply chain management. 

Ethan (2020) argued that supply chain standards could be a great policy for EV battery industries as it could coordinate a standard management system for promoting the sustainability and growth. He identified that some regulations and policies are creating barriers in supply chain issues of battery industries because these policies hampering the extension of battery life as people are demanding remanufacturing of lithium and electric batteries. Heller (2019) agreed that reuse and recycle process is essential for EV batteries as it will enable the long-term sustainability in supply chain management. 

2.3: Technological challenges in supply chains of EV batteries

Developments have advanced the growth of EV batteries which attracted solutions from various researches. Richard (2019) explained that his study focused on identifying main elements of supply chain which can enhance the efficiency of EV batteries. The supply chain is explained to analyse core competencies of a battery company to maintain differentiation in products and reducing costs. Technological challenges are macroeconomic factor which can affect the production of electric vehicle battery industries. He collected the primary data to obtain the efficiency of the supply chain in battery industries in countries such as the UK, Japan and South Korea. 

Richard (2019) found that supplying materials for lithium batteries have increased in the global market as electric vehicles are increasingly using lithium and electric batteries. Wagner (2018) defined that he explored R&D centres of many battery industries which produced electric vehicle batteries to identify technological challenges facing by those companies. Within the vehicle sector, the value of lithium batteries is increasing in the global supply chain. He identified that many vehicle companies are giving priorities in using lithium and electric batteries. But large amount of lithium materials can be founded in South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina. 

According to Nicolson and Keith (2019), they founded a main technological challenge which is faced by battery industries and it is lifetime of battery usage. Many electric batteries have a very short-haul usage of lifetime and charging facilities for batteries are not available in many places. They identified that high-value activities are required to increase lifetime of electric batteries which will be used in vehicles. Tahil (2018) explored that the successful production of electric vehicle batteries are dependent on the overcoming of different challenges such as technological factors. 

According to Tahil (2018), he developed scientific articles to reporting different challenges which create barriers to the supply chain management of EV batteries. He found significant changes in the energy sector of China when the country adopts electric batteries in vehicles. Williamson (2019) studied that technological factors have changed the preference of consumers in using electric battery vehicles. He predicted in his article that the use of fossil fuel is going to be ended in the future in traditional vehicles. The transformation and change in electric vehicles in using batteries is a great revolution in the technological department. 

2.4: Globalisation trends increasing pace in electric battery supply chain

China has a magnificent dominance in the supply chain of EV battery but the concern over Covid-19 has changed the globalisation trend on the supply chain of electric batteries. The globalisation trend has increased the need for the supply chain in the industry for improving the sustainability change. Though battery industries in European markets have got some momentum in capturing market shares of supplying electric batteries, the supply chain process in regional areas is still not improved for battery industries of these countries.

Mandel (2019) showed his concerns over the essential of electric batteries which is different from using other batteries. To follow the global trends, European battery companies have created an alliance of the European Battery Alliance so that battery industries in Europe can create a competitive supply chain over China and the USA. Jenney (2019) described that the senior management of EBA confirmed the use of electric batteries with several materials for creating a sustainable supply chain management. She discovered that European vehicle companies were giving low priority over using electric batteries which resulted in low attractiveness and activity. 

According to Anders and Jane (2018), they analysed in the article that the prior challenge over global countries and companies is to deliver electric batteries according to expectations of electric vehicle companies. To continue the supply chain process, EV battery industries should have to find competent people who can manage the supply chain process in Europe. They identified that Europe has enough components of lithium to produce electric batteries so that EV battery industries can meet long-term needs of buyers. Many countries of Europe are expecting that they will be the leader of supplying electric batteries and lithium components during 2025-2030 period.

The study of Nelson and Paul (2019) explored that a realistic plan will be required by EBA to become the market leader of supplying lithium components and electric batteries. The planning is essential for European Battery Alliance as it is projected that lithium can be used for not only in manufacturing current batteries but also for the batteries of the next generation. Normark (2020) described that EV battery industries must form a global supply chain which will allow the industry to maintain cost-effective options to gain the competitive advantage in the global market trends. Therefore, he added that EV battery industries should use materials in batteries which have high ethical and environmental standards. 

2.5: Cost-effective supply chain management for electric vehicle battery industries

Electric vehicles batteries should be adopted in large-scales so that industries can get significant levels of energy and benefits of environmental factors. Vehicles are adopting electric batteries because they have to reduce their reliability on fossil fuels which is not good for environment. Zhang (2018) discussed that vehicles are accompanying the use of electric batteries but there are some economic challenges in the production of Lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are the most popular batteries in the current world which is sustainable for electric vehicles. He added that battery industries are adopting the remanufacturing process so that they can lead to more sustainable supply chains of lithium batteries.The supply chain management in battery industries is required so that they can support the transportation industry in reducing environmental pollution. 

According to Linda (2019), different factors can affect the effectiveness of the remanufacturing process of battery industries such as economic viability, battery supply and demand chain, production capability and environmental feasibility etc. She found lack of investigations on the supply chain management of battery industries in manufacturing lithium batteries for vehicles. Therefore, she created a model which depicts the network model of the supply chain and different levels of maintaining quality in the production of electric batteries. Pablo and Gruber (2018) developed an optimisation model of supply chain for battery industries in their article on the cost-effective manufacturing system of electric batteries. 

Pablo and Gruber (2018) initialised the sensitivity analysis for determining some essential parameters of profits in the model of supply chain system of battery industries. They have analysed a numerical study on the proposed supply chain framework of battery industries where 10-30% increases in profits were found in the model. According to Friedman (2019), he analysed the sensitivity analysis in the battery industries including supply chain network where he found that battery industries must find key parameters by carefully implementing a model which is cost-effective supply chains. He claimed that his research can help to stimulate the remanufacturing process of electric batteries which is economically and environmentally sustainable. 

2.6: Effects of Covid-19 in disrupting the supply chain of battery materials

The Corona virus pandemic has disrupted the overall supply chain process in the global market and it affects the system of supply chain in health care, transportation system, business industries and economy etc. Maximum business industries were shutdown during the pandemic as governments of different countries pushed lockdown for 1 month to 3 months in their respective countries. Meng (2020) explained that due to the lockdown process, electric vehicles were not required by people which decrease the demand for electric batteries in the world. 

He added that people were in quarantine as going outside from home was prohibited for them and workers can’t join in the workplace to manufacture batteries which was needed by electric vehicles. Therefore, the supply chain process of manufacturing EV batteries were totally off and EV battery industries can’t maintain the procedure of supplying battery materials which are required for manufacturing electric batteries. Dyatkin (2020) explained that battery industries were living in economic uncertainty and they close the supply of battery materials as electric batteries were not needed by electric vehicle companies.

Robert (2020) demonstrated that the Covid-19 pandemic has heavily disrupted the EV battery industries as electric vehicles were under lockdown and people were not using electric vehicles without reasons as they were living in their home working from home. The government was concerned over the energy storage as batteries required huge amount of energy for the manufacturing process. 

Chapter 3: Methodology

The chapter of methodology will follow gathered using secondary data so that the project manager can identify the best method to be implemented while doing studies on the related topic. The research methodology will be developed f the learning after finding the study's problem, and the project manager will find the best method to be applied in the study so that it can show a fruitful result. 

3.1: Research strategy

The researcher chooses some research strategies by applying some new data and information where he collected some previous studies on the related data of supply chain process in electric vehicles battery industries. But he chooses different places to obtain data so that he can analyse different results of the study. Therefore, the researcher will try to explore new studies on an existing research subject. The study will be conducted using secondary quantitative research method where quantitative data will be collected from secondary sources like research papers, government resources, journals etc. published between 2007 and 2020. This time frame has been chosen to preserve the contextual consistency between the articles published in the last five years, and the current contextual factors. 

3.1.1: Research design

The study's purpose, techniques of the study and analyzing method of the study are considered in the designing of the research. There are two types of design policies in developing research: the qualitative design of research and the quantitative research design (Keightley, 2020). For the research purpose, researcher will the quantitative method of study. The quantitative method is the scientific method of research studies. 

3.1.2: Research approach

The project manager can select an approach to the study and select the deductive or inductive approaches. For the research purpose, he will follow the inductive approach as he will developnew theories and models, and concepts byanalyzing the factors affecting the sustainable supply chain management in E.V. battery industries. The researcher will also focus on testing the hypothesis for examining the deep-angle of the study (Flethcher, 2018). For implementing the quantitative method, the project manager will use secondary sources for acquiring data on empirical studies on the relevant variables. 

To conduct the study in the inductive approach, the researcher should analyse data by observing all information. In the inductive approach, the researcher will try to produce some generalised results and theories which will be collected from different conclusions of previous studies. The inductive approach has been selected in the study because the approach gave lots of efforts on identifying the context of the study. The inductive approach shows good results where the sample size is small in the qualitative technique. But the weakness of the inductive approach in the study was that it can generalise theories and observations when the acquired data is rather focused than spread-out. Therefore, the reliability question of applying the inductive approach is not answered by many researchers. 

3.2: Research techniques

As the project manager has used the quantitative method for exploring the research, he must use a technique for explaining the study by using two approaches. The researcher used secondary sources for collecting relevant numerical data that could facilitate the achievement of the research objectives (Woodhams, 2020). The researcher conducted desk research for acquiring empirical evidence that could explain the factors affecting effective supply chain management in the E.V. batteries industry.

3.3: Quantitative techniques

To fulfil the purpose of the research project, the researcher has applied the quantitative method. The main feature of the quantitative study was to appropriately take a sample size and sampling method which should be taken from a large selection of secondary sources.. The basic advantage of the quantitative technique is that it is easy to be applied in the study and it is easier to be applied than other methods. 

But the quantitative method has also been applied as the researcher will use the survey research method where various survey questions will be developed. The quantitative method has offered the researcher to do a complete research on a subject (Simmons, 2019). The researcher applied the quantitative method because it will not limit the scope of the research and the idea of collecting data from participants. 

To apply the quantitative method, the researcher should adopt some statistical models so that he can explain what is observed by him. Researchers could know what they actually want to find out from the quantitative technique. The quantitative study helped the researcher to create design of the study before collecting the secondary data (Gunaratnam, 2019). The researcher used different tools of the quantitative data such as the questionnaire process or numerical analysis. The collected data in the quantitative technique has been found in a form of statistics or numbers. 

3.4. Sample size, population, and method of sampling

The project manager used the sample size of 25 secondary sources including journals, articles, research reports, annual statements of the company, company provided data. Convenience sampling method was used for choosing the secondary literature sources (Wilkinson, 2018). 

3.4.1: Data collection

To collect the secondary data the researcher has utilized desk research strategy for searching for relevant sources and extracting the necessary data from them. Once the sources were screened based on relevance and date of publication (Denk, 2020). Once the screening process was done the relevant quantitative data was extracted form these sources and analysed further for satisfying the research objectives.

3.4.2: Data formulation and presentation

For presenting data and formulating data, the project manager usedgraphs, charts, tables and histograms to present the acquired quantitative data. These visual instruments were also useful for merging similar data from different time segments, and for presenting relationships among multiple variables. 

3.5: Data analysis

As the researcher will conduct the study in the desk research method, he must use the frequency distribution table to show results of each type of data acquired form different secondary sources. By the frequency distribution table, he can show percentages of types of acquired data .After gathering data, the researcher will categorise collected data in different sub-themes and themes so that the researcher can compare the collected data with other information. The researcher will use collected quantitative data and compare it wth recent data to determine the degree of variation, if any (Bagnall, 2016). 

3.6: Ethical issues

The study has faced several ethical issues while conducting the research. It has been mentioned in the proposal that the researcher has taken the acceptance of all respondents before making them as the participant of the research. The researcher has acknowledged all the sources used for this study. It has also referenced them appropriately (Scott, 2018).Collected data was not claimed to be original and proper citation was provided for all the data used form secondary sources. Appropriate permissions were also acquired from the sources that required so. Any information that could harm the reputation of any entity was not used.The agreed consent of participants has given them the chance of avoid any survey question or withdraw from participating in the study if they want. Participants were also informed that the survey answer will be remained confidential and it will be used only for academic essentials. 

3.7: Limitations of the methodology

The researcher has followed some limitations while developing the study, such as –

1) The sample size for the secondary sources was relatively small as the researcher has only taken a small sample size of 25sources, whereas a big sample size can increase the reliability and validity of the study

2) The quantitative method was not fully applied in the study as the researcher has tried to explore the study by mainly focusing on the acquired data.

3) There may be different factors relevant to the topic of supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries, which may show different results

4) In different cases, specific information required to answer the research questions were not readily available. In some cases the researcher had to derive relevant data by comparing and analysing multiple sources. 

4.What issues and fact that can affect the electric vehicle battery industry's supply chain management industry

When an EV battery can no longer fulfil the requirements of vehicle operation (lower maximum range and decreased acceleration), it hits its optimum threshold, and customers usually bring their EVs to the dealership when the car is operating below their expectations.). This degraded EV batteries still have approximately 70%–80% of their original capacity, researchers have discovered that, rather than recycling batteries immediately after their first use in an EV, repurposing degraded EV batteries in a second life in less demanding stationary Energy storage System is still possible and feasible from a technological, economic, and environmental perspective. (Gaines and Sullivan, 2010, Neubauer and Pesaran, 2011, Ramoni and Zhang, 2013, Manzetti and Mariasiu, 2015). Electric vehicle (EV) battery life cycle given the proposed battery reuse.  (Reinhardt et al., 2019)

For the EV industry Battery Second Use B2U model framework is conceptualised that incorporates the cross-sector multi-stakeholder impact and shared value generation mechanism. Ultimately,  B2U has the potential to demonstrate that it is a feasible and efficient rationale for long-term sustainability. It might be achieved by incorporating a multi-stakeholder network-centric business model rather than conventional firm-centric strategies, which will eventually revitalize existing business models in order to achieve sustainability. (Reinhardt et al., 2019).  The approach of battery second use reduces the resource cycle by extending the battery's overall service life and somewhat closes the resource loop by delaying the recycling phase significantly, resulting in enhanced sustainable resource management. Therefore it is critical to obtain a consistent supply of raw materials and to innovate EV battery cell manufacture using ecologically plentiful and friendly raw materials. (Antikainen et al., 2016) 

Concerns about climate change have grown in recent decades as a result of a growing global population and the associated increased resource usage and environmental impacts. This has emphasised the importance of shifting toward efficient models that address the challenges of a more sustainable future. Indeed, the transport sector is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere, owing to ever-increasing consumption of finite fossil fuels and a century-long reliance on internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), demonstrating that the automotive industry's current economic, social, and environmental structures are unsustainable. (Ahmadian et al., 2018, Casals et al., 2017).

2. What are the risks related to the sustainable management of the supply chain in the electric vehicle battery industries?

Lithium is concentrated in a few geographical areas. Bolivia, Chile, China, the United States of America, and Argentina account for about 90% of world resources. The preponderance (more than 50% ) of lithium deposits and production are concentrated in South American nations such as Chile and Argentina.

 

From 1910 through 2016, the United States and the rest of the globe extracted lithium. The primary graphic depicts the quantity of lithium contained in Gg. (Miatto et al., 2020)

China has proven in recent years that a nation that supplies a resource, such as rare earth elements, a critical raw material for NiMH batteries, may have a significant impact on the country that gets the resource. China, which controls more than 95% of the world's supply of rare earth elements, recently decided to restrict its export quota for this raw resource. (Hensel, 2011),

 

Factors and constraints of lithium/ev supply chain (Egbue and Long, 2012)

At the meantime, there is no battery technology that can compete with lithium for use in electric car batteries — and this is unlikely to change in the near future. (Kushnir and Sanden, 2012)

 

Annual lithium consumption by market from 1935 to 2016. (Miatto et al., 2020)

While lithium demand for automotive batteries is expected to increase considerably in the future, other end-use applications will also require a large amount of lithium. Following extraction, processed lithium is used to make the cathode, a component of lithium-ion batteries. At the moment, competing uses threaten future EV development, particularly if alternate lithium sources and vehicle technologies are not developed. Rapid growth in demand may result in supply-demand mismatches, resulting in high costs and affecting lead times.

The increase in demand for lithium-based batteries, along with the current interest in and rise of lithium-ion battery-powered electric vehicles, has prompted worries about the lithium resource base's ability to satisfy demand. This research examines important areas in the lithium supply chain for the development of EV batteries, such as production capacity, recycling, trade partnerships, and the geopolitical climate. According to research assessment, a lithium battery-powered future faces not just resource scarcity, but also the aforementioned concerns. Due to the inequitable distribution of lithium resources, scarcity of lithium will pose a significant danger to the supply of EVs. (Egbue and Long, 2012). Thus, Supply chain management is a critical component of engineering management; as such, an engineering manager must be aware of concerns that might have a negative effect on the supply chain. Without a doubt, lithium consumption will continue to grow considerably in the future.

According to this quick examination, the following figure indicates probable supply issues for Co, Li, and perhaps natural graphite, but no observable supply concerns for Ni or Mn.

 Static Resource Utilization Metrics for Ni, Mn, Co, Li, and Natural Graphite (Olivetti et al., 2017)

This result illustrates that the supply of cobalt is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whereas the supply of natural graphite is concentrated in China. Despite the fact that one element that makes materials important is the potential of supply interruptions induced by government policy or socio-political instability, these concentrations have been raised as a subject of caution.

3. What new information can be used to solve factors affecting sustainable supply chain management in the electric vehicle battery industries?

To understand whether new technical and scientific developments can displace Co from the Li-ion industry, it is important to understand the properties that make Co so attractive in Li-ion technology. Cobalt, specifically Co3+, possesses a unique electron configuration with 6 d-electrons in a low spin state, making it a very small ion, leading to cathodes with very high density. The superb energy density of LiCoO2 is highly desirable for the portable electronics industry, where battery volume is the main constraint for increasing device run time. In addition, this electron configuration also enhances the ability of cathodes to form and remain in a layered structure, which is highly beneficial for Li motion and, as a result, for power density and effective capacity as well. For this reason, all commercial, high-energy density cathodes as of today contain a certain amount of cobalt. Non-cobalt-containing cathodes, such as manganese spinels and LiFePO4, while attractive for some applications, have not been able to rival the energy density of other cathodes. The high stability and high power capability of LiFePO4 do make it a contender for grid applications, in particular if its cost becomes even more attractive due to rising Ni and Co prices. (Reed and Ceder, 2004), A modern scientific observation showing layeredness, as provided by Co, is not required for excellent cathodes as long as an excess of Li is introduced to the compounds may further mitigate the industry's reliance on Co. Indeed, numerous high-capacity cathodes without cobalt has properties of so-called rocksalt structure (Lee et al., 2014) Compounds based on metals such as Mo and Cr, Ni, Ti, and Mo, Nb and Mn, and V all shown extremely high energy density in the absence of cobalt. Graphite (Olivetti et al., 2017), Silicon may displace a certain proportion of carbon on the anode side. Silicon metal for batteries is made from silica, which has abundant and geographically varied sources. (Obrovac and Chevrier, 2014)

4.What are gaps in electric vehicle industries that create effective, sustainable supply chain management problems in different battery companies?

Lithium ion batteries have been introduced in EVs during the last decade. With advancements in energy and power density, safety, affordability, and long lifetime over the last two decades, LIBs have become the preferred battery technology for top EV manufacturers such as General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Ford, BMW, and BYD.

5. What are the sustainability issues of supply chain management in electric vehicle battery industries to remove critical environmental effects?

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