EV battery cells: Material demand and CO2 emission implications

Although battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have zero tailpipe emissions, they are are not fully emissions free. For EVs to be called completely emissions free, the industry needs to reduce the level of CO2 emitted during the manufactguring of EVs, which currently is higher than emissions from the manufacturing of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Manufacturing of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries is the biggest contributor across all the stages of EV production. Even in battery production, there are varying levels of emissions associated with each subprocess, such as material mining, refining, cathode and anode production, and module, battery pack assembly and also logistics. The report takes an in-depth look at the various processes involved in battery manufacturing and analyzes the Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions related to these processes.

The report also assesses the demand for cathode active material (CAM), anode active material (AAM) and various primary materials used in battery manufacturing, including lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese.

1. Overview
a) Executive summary
b) Research methodology
c) Introduction

2. Regional analysis
a) Overview
b) Europe
c) Greater China
d) North America
e) Japan/Korea

3. Materials demand
a) Overview
b) Demand for CAM and AAM
c) Raw material demand

4. CO2 implication of battery material and processes
a) Greenhouse gas protocol (Scope 1-3)
b) Mining and refining
c) Cathode and anode production
d) Cell assembly
e) Module and pack assembly
f) Recycling

5. OEM analysis
a) Overview
b) Tesla
c) Volkswagen Group
d) Hyundai
e) Mercedes-Benz
f) BMW

6. Supplier analysis
a) Overview
b) CATL
c) LG Energy Solution
d) SK Innovation
e) Samsung SDI
f) Northvolt

7. Conclusion