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Richard Harris did an interesting segment on NPR this morning about electric cars. He talked about the research being done on batteries for electric cars. Most research being done today on these batteries is being done on Lithium Ion. They require lots of the elements cobalt and lithium. Can you guess where in the world the large deposite of cobalt and lithium are found? Congo, China and Bolivia. Some of the most politically unstable areas of the planet. China has already discontinued the export of lithium.
Are we going to trade our dependance on foreign oil for dependance on foreign chemicals? Foreign oil comes from countries that are politically stable. China needs an existing automotive manufacturing company to help create a China that is an importing economy rather than an exporting one. If we let either of the big three slide into chapter 7, you can bet China will buy all the parts it needs to start manufacturing cheap electric cars. With their labor costs so much less then ours, what’s left of our automotive manufacturing sector will be DOA.
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waynec, I thought the program was very interesting too. iirc, one of the guests indicated lithium is abundant in Brazil, but Chili and Argentina have even more than Brazil:
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However, we’d run into the same situation as we have with oil. Lithium like oil is a finite resource.
http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp…..21/153766/
I thought the host asked a great question. Why not have companies that are already manufacturing alternative vehicles buy the big 3 outright, assuming the technology is viable? That way the workers could be retrained and go to work. Any thoughts?
I meant use the 25 billion to buy the big 3 outright.
peony,
However, we’d run into the same situation as we have with oil. Lithium like oil is a finite resource.
Great reference article in your comment!
So, how do we fix this situation?
The Big Three want to be bailed out.
Millions of jobs are in the ballance.
Peoples health care and pensions are also on the line.
American car sales are down about 25-30% from this time last year.
We saw six weeks ago how frightning it can be to be dependant on foreign oil.
Batteries for electric cars need chemicals that are found mainly in countries that are not our friends.
If the big 3 start producing electric cars, we won’t be as dependant on foreign oil. But we will be dependant of unfriendly countries for cobalt and lithium for batteries.
If they start producing hybred vehicles, we’ll be less dependant on foreign oil and somewhat dependant on foreign chemicals.
If they start producing plug-in hybred vehicles, we’ll still need foreign chemicals and oil
Obama needs, now more than ever, to make up for the “cowboy deplomacy of the last administration. We will be paying for his screwed up choices for at least a generation.
Things can get rather difficult when products we get from another country become strategic to our national interest.
wayne, thanks for the post. emptywheel has discussed the situation in terms of GM’s Volt. She, Ian Welsh, Stirling Newberry, and Jane have argued forcefully that we cannot let the Shanghai Automobile Industrial Corporation buy up our auto industry.
I haven’t heard anyone at FDL bring up the cobalt and lithium problem. I’m not a scientist, but I just looked over at wikipedia and it sounds as though you have identified a real serious problem. No point in trying to develop cobalt and lithium batteries if we can’t get the raw materials in sufficient supply.
BooRadley,
You make a good point:
emptywheel has discussed the situation in terms of GM’s Volt. She, Ian Welsh, Stirling Newberry, and Jane have argued forcefully that we cannot let the Shanghai Automobile Industrial Corporation buy up our auto industry.
The hole I see us getting into is letting SAIC buy any parts of the big 3. As posted a few ndays ago, if China gets the manufacturing technology, they will open thier vast interior to western style development. Eventually, they will develope their own technology anyway, but if we give/sell them ours, we will be hastening our own demise, because they will then have the largest market for goods in the world, their own population. Which means they won’t have to sell their cheap goods to the US.
we cannot allow products imported into this country that don’t provide fair wage
a fair wage is one where the laborer works 40 hours and is overcompensated for more, he makes enough to put healthy food on the table, can afford to educate his kids as high as they are capable, take vacation, afford quality health care so he can save his wife if she gets caner, himself if he gets a heart attack, his kids if they break their arm or need a new tooth.
and then be able to retire so they don’t have to work till the day they die
when a country does not insist it’s labor have those simple, basic and necessary expenses covered, that product must be tariffed comenserate with the differance and then some punitive charge on top of that
that is the way to bring the country forward, the planet forward, mankind forward