Carmakers' electric dreams depend on supplies of rare minerals

With mining of cobalt and other elements politically and ethically charged, the hunt for alternatives is onBritain last week joined France in pledging to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 in an attempt to cut toxic vehicle emissions. The move to battery-powered vehicles has been a long time coming. Environmental campaigners claim that charging cars and vans from the grid, like a laptop, is sure to be cleaner than petrol or diesel power. The government agrees and says it will invest more than ?800m in driverless and clean technology, and a further ?246m in battery technology research.BMW plans to build a fully electric version of the Mini at Cowley in Oxford from 2019. Volvo announced earlier this month that from the same year, all its new models will have an electric motor. Continue reading...