Lithium: The Real Problem With Tesla and Electric Vehicles
“None of us are happy filling up my gas tank at $120 bucks or whatever. It might be $130, and if crude oil does go to $140 or $150 next year, we'll be filling up at double that,” says Jon Najarian, the co-founder of MarketRebellion.com.
As petroleum prices rise and consumers prioritize green products, electric vehicles (EVs), such as Telsa, become more attractive to Americans. However, Jon Najarian points out one large problem: “There is not enough lithium on earth.”
"General Motors and the head of Ford, the head of Volkswagen, the head of Porsche, all making EVs," he says. "They need lithium because the only way right now you can do electric vehicles is with lithium-ion batteries and if you don't get enough lithium, you can't make those cars.”
Lithium batteries are recyclable, including the battery in your phone. “They should be paying you even on a broken phone to get your lithium out of your phone because these guys can recycle it,” says Najarian. Currently, not even one percent of the cars driving on U.S. streets are electric. According to Najarian, this number will improve significantly once we get all the lithium out of damaged electronic devices, such as phones, computers, tablets, and EVs.
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“Most of the lithium that we get is mined all over the world, including in Afghanistan, which is one of the reasons we were there, quite frankly,” says Najarian. We need to find more places to mine lithium, such as in the oceans and we need to do a better job of recycling what we already have."
Watch the full interview now:
