Electric vehicles need batteries, and most batteries are made with lithium, a critical material European automakers are chasing as they face tough competition from China. Now an Australian firm says it can help, with a refinery in Germany set to extract the sought-after mineral from briny underground water deep below a town near the French border. Vulcan Energy says its new plant west of Frankfurt, now in its pilot phase, plans to soon produce lithium for batteries used by auto manufacturers including Volkswagen, Renault and Stellantis.
Excess heat from the geothermal water source about two kilometres (over a mile) below the Rhine Valley will help heat homes in a local community, the company says. The German refinery "is a really important part of Europe's critical raw material independence," Vulcan Energy senior executive Francis Wedin told AFP. For now Europe's lithium battery sector is struggling to get established just as regional demand for electric vehicles has slowed.
Vulcan Energy hopes it will eventually help boost Europe's nascent industry producing the silvery, white metal, a key component in the lithium-ion batteries widely used in EVs. Commercial production is scheduled to start in 2027, with the process subsidised by the German government to the tune of 100 million euros ($106 million). With the clock ticking towards a 2035 European Union deadline to phase out the sale of new combustion engine vehicles, carmakers are rushing to secure supplies of lithium.
The EU.