Sustainable manufacturing supply chains for vehicle electrification

The United States and many other countries have placed electric vehicles at the center of strategies to decarbonize the light duty fleet. Based on life cycle assessments, per mile driven, electric vehicles emit a lower amount of greenhouse gases than conventional vehicles. This result accounts for increased emissions during vehicle manufacturing, which are largely attributable to manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. However, life cycle assessments that focus on greenhouse gas emissions may miss other environmental effects of manufacturing electric vehicle batteries that should be addressed to drive society towards a just transition to an electrified vehicle fleet. These include water and air pollution from minerals mining activities. Notably, most electric vehicle battery manufacturing along with acquisition of the minerals the batteries contain occur overseas. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the supply chain is shifting as investments are made to ramp up domestic minerals production and battery manufacturing. These shifts are occurring alongside other developments and changes in the international supply chain. Each of these shifts bring environmental and social effects. Life cycle assessment is a valuable tool to evaluate the overall sustainability of lithium-ion battery manufacturing. I will describe how this holistic analysis framework along with material flow analysis can help us design and pursue a battery supply chain that is tailored to limit negative environmental and social effects of lithium-ion battery manufacturing.