According to Toyota Chief Scientist Gill Pratt, the auto industry is more profitable to develop various power plants – both purely electric, and hybrid or hydrogen. The immediate problems that manufacturers will face if everyone switches to electric cars are a shortage of charging stations and an acute shortage of lithium used in batteries.
Lithium, as well as other rare minerals, will not be enough for tens of millions of long-range electric cars. Therefore, Pratt proposes to divide it between hybrid cars, which are equipped with smaller batteries. This will not only allow more cars to be produced, but will also have a more noticeable effect on CO2 emissions.
So, Pratt cites the example of 100 cars with internal combustion engines emitting an average of 250 grams of CO2 per kilometer. If lithium is enough for 100 kilowatt-hours, then one long-range Tesla can be equipped with a battery, but the remaining 99 cars will still be fuel-powered. This will give a slight reduction in emissions – up to 248.5 grams per kilometer. If you distribute the same lithium among 90 hybrid cars, leaving 10 cars with internal combustion engines, then the CO2 content in the average exhaust will drop to 205 grams per kilometer.
