X

This rare metal is hot, and that could hurt electric cars

A 70 percent jump in the price of cobalt could raise problems for companies like Tesla and Apple.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
Expertise Content strategy, team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Samsung, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.
See full bio
Jessica Dolcourt
Tesla Model S

Cobalt is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries, like those found in electric cars.

 Tesla

Deep in the earth there's a scarce, hard-to-mine metal whose price has already spiked by 70 percent in 2017, according to Quartz. And for companies to keep making billions of batteries for electric cars, cell phones and laptops, it's absolutely essential.

Give up? It's cobalt, a key ingredient in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Sixty percent of the world's supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The Washington Post reported. Compounding the problem are alleged child labor practices that caused Apple to at least temporarily cut ties with certain mines (current status: suspended, a spokesperson confirmed to CNET).

So not only is cobalt hard to get, period, and even harder to get ethically, it's also now extremely expensive.
While scarcity is a problem for every industry using these batteries, getting hold of cobalt could hit the electric-car market hardest. For example, Tesla, perhaps the world's highest-profile electric-car maker, wants to produce 500,000 by the end of 2018 (it's already built 25,418 vehicles in the first quarter of 2017).

That's a lot of batteries, which means Tesla and its ilk would need a lot of expensive cobalt.

Tesla and Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.