China controls much of the world’s supply of cobalt. Will it give the country an insurmountable edge in developing electric vehicles?
Illustration by Sam Ward
Tesla’s “Battery Day” in Fremont, California, this past September felt like Lollapalooza for energy nerds. As record-breaking wildfires burned just six miles away, underscoring Tesla’s mission to rid the world of climate change-causing fossil fuels, the electric vehicle company organized an hour-long celebration of lithium-ion batteries — one of a handful of technological breakthroughs that have made low carbon policies possible.
On a giant outdoor stage, Elon Musk, Tesla’s co-founder and chief executive and Drew Baglino, a senior vice president, wore black t-shirts with a close-up image of Tesla’s new battery structure as they waxed poetic about the chemistry of lithium ion batteries. With energy-dense, durable and versatile cells, the nearly 50-year-old lithium ion battery now powers everything from laptops and smartphones to electric vehicles. The battery’s inventors — John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino — even won the Nobel Priz
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