As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms

Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 1:14 PM EDT.

The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods, Reuters reported.

That makes Toyota’s market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world’s dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells, the news service said. Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tons annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed, the story said. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.

Among the rare earth elements that would be most affected by a shortage is Neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines, the news service said. Close cousins Terbium and Dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve Neodymium’s magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, Lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries, the story said.

Production of both hybrids cars and wind turbines is expected to climb sharply amid the clamor for cleaner transportation and energy alternatives that reduce dependence on fossil fuels blamed for global climate change, Reuters noted. An independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, calls the Prius “the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world,” the story said. (Reuters)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 1:14 PM EDT and is filed under Electric Vehicles, Industry. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are currently closed.