Battery chemistry mix predominantly explains disparities in critical material use for electric passenger vehicles

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are vital for decarbonization but intensify critical material demand. Existing studies often fall short in precise assessments of material demand and its reduction potential due to overlooking real-world EV characteristics and their inherent spatial, segmental, and technological heterogeneity. To fill this gap, this study adopts a bottom-up multi-dataset fusion approach, providing high-resolution characterizations of segment mix, battery capacity, and battery chemistry mix across five passenger vehicle segments covering China’s 31 provinces and 29 EU countries. Results indicate significant shifts of per-EV use of lithium, cobalt, and nickel between 2019 and 2023: −6%, −68%, −41% in China, and +15%, –25%, +29% in the EU, respectively. Battery chemistry mix emerges as a dominant factor, reducing cobalt use by 7.2 kg per vehicle in China and 3.6 kg in the EU, more than offsetting the increases attributable to the other characteristics, and explaining 38%–86% of the material use gaps between the two regions. The findings highlight critical pathways for reducing critical material demand through strategic technological choices and policy design. Electric vehicles support decarbonization but raise critical material demand, which is often misestimated due to overlooked real-world and heterogeneous characteristics. Here, the authors use a bottom-up multi-dataset fusion approach to characterize segment mix, battery capacity, and battery chemistry across five passenger vehicle segments covering China’s 31 provinces and 29 EU countries.