Electric vehicle (EV) will be dominant in automobile sale in near future. It is estimated that half of car sales will be electric car in the US by 2030. Market share of EV in Europe is increasing rapidly. In the meantime, Toyota is said to have focused more on hybrid car than EV. Now Japanese car makers try to catch up with the world trend. But I wonder if electric car is really environmentally friendly, because the production of electricity needs the significant amount of petroleum, natural gas and coal. I hope that those fossil fuel are replaced by renewable energy in the future.
Another issue is related to the production of battery. Metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel are used to make batteries. Mining and producing lithium need a large amount of water that impacts environment. Cobalt comes from small mines in Congo that employ child labor and cause environmental pollution.