Geography of the Automotive Industry
Geography of the Automotive Industry
Analysis of geography of the worldwide automotive industry. I examine the largest auto companies, the countries in which they are located, and where on the globe the assembly plants are. I also take a look at the electric vehicle revolution and where the resources to power the cars of the future are located.
British Geological Survey study of worldwide lithium reserves:
https://medium.com/batterybits/is-there-enough-lithium-to-make-all-the-batteries-c3a522c01498
Hackaday engineering study on lithium availability:
https://medium.com/batterybits/is-there-enough-lithium-to-make-all-the-batteries-c3a522c01498
Album displayed: Elvis Costello- “My Aim is True” (1977)
The more I research electric vehicles the more I see how difficult it is to justify one if you live in a regional area of Australia as I do. There is only one public charger in my town at a coffee shop in an industrial estate and thats it. Everyone uses aircon from start to finish which drains power and long flat trips with no regenerative braking eats into range, and in my region you need range. For Europe and Japan? Sure. For Australia? Hybrids for now if anything. Plus the regional roads here are so bad they destroy cars with low profile tires and electrics have low profile tires. Hence the preference for diesel SUV’s. I too will be a late adopter as I have no intention of being forced to the side of the road for yet another 30 minute coffee I didn’t want or need.
States he couldn’t find any credible information on the power grid not being able to handle all electric vehicles. And yet we’re almost daily hearing about rolling blackouts and other things having to do with lack of power for a current needs. I think there’s no doubt as the use of electric vehicles increases will have more power grid failures. Nobody is building new power plants and they are decommissioning others so you do the math.
The issue with lithium and EVs is not that we will run out of lithium, it’s that we don’t produce the required amounts and need massive new decade-long investments that at this time are not environmentally friendly and are largely not occurring anyway. The more problematic metal is cobalt anyways which is mostly sourced from child and slave labor in the Congo. Nickel could be another, especially post-Ukraine War. None of these problems are insoluble, they just aren’t likely going to be in the time frame needed for the rapid uptake of EVs at scale.
Similarly with the grid, the problem isn’t producing enough power so much (though that is a problem) but getting it to where it is needed when it is needed. Once again, huge and decade-long investments will be needed and, again once again, nowhere near enough is being done. I would point out that the "the grid will be fine" articles I came across make the opposite mistake of the "grid can’t handle EVs" crowd. Where the latter claim is based on everyone always charging their car, the former is based on people dividing up their charging evenly. While a 25% increase in electricity is easily doable, the grid will have to be ready for everyone charging their cars, the night before holidays for example, where at times demand could double. It’s not feasible to have a grid capable of handling that, although there are annoying, to EV owner, solutions. Also, do you think in NIMBY and decade-long-environmental-survey America we’ll be able to do all of that in 20, let alone 10, years? Even environmentally-obsessed Germany’s Energiewende is running into cost, reliability, and NIMBY issues far short of the goal.
Lastly, Toyota doesn’t have EV plans because the CEO has looked at world governments and other auto makers promising the moon on EVs while doing little on the massive long-term costs of the transition and rightly concluded that when it hits the fan, voters will choose lower taxes/electricity costs and reliable electricity over pushing forward "damn the blackouts and higher taxes, full speed ahead" fashion. We started to see that with that last winter in Europe before Russia provided a convenient excuse to delay various green transitions.
Sorry if this appears multiple times, it’s disappearing so I’m trying it without the links. If you want them I can provide them.
Awesome video! I actually thought of your channel because your voice sounds similar to the guy from the “My Old Car” channel, lo and behold you’ve got a car-related video right here!
you dont like to stop for 40 minutes after 300 miles????
bro just buy a plane or train ticket
I love the insights. Your theory on china/india and lithinum is quite fascinating. thanks
I have to ask about the power grid research. was it the production of the energy or the infrastructure it self that moves the electricity to the end user you were commenting about?.
Interesting timing on this video. You stated that the electrical grid in the USA should have no problem with the increased demand put on it by transitioning all cars from gasoline to EV. Well California is already sounding the alarm for THIS SUMMER. I’m not going to link an article because I don’t want to give the MSM the clicks, but if you search for a term like "may 2022 California energy officials warning" you’ll get dozens of articles you can choose from. Switching to EV cars & going green with the electrical grid at the same time won’t work…at least not yet.
They are doing things ass backwards…you need to have the infrastructure in place to charge all of those EV cars. And if green energy can’t meet the demand, instead of filling your car with gasoline you are going to charge it with electricity from a energy grid burning fossil fuels to create the electricity (SMH). It seems like hybrids might be a better compromise until the infrastructure is in place to handle a complete transition to EV cars. Green energy technology hasn’t reached the point where it can handle that type of capacity.
Keep in mind that current ev technologies will not produce all.the kinds of cars that will meet everyone’s transportation needs. I do a lot of long road trips, pulling 25000 lb loads, sometimes in extreme cold weather. There are no evs made that are capable of doing what I need. My situation isnt just me either
Thank for this, Geography King. I’d been believing stuff like “lithium is a rare mineral that will run out”. I’m so happy to hear that it’s not true.
FYI….GM was loaned 10B (that’s B as in Ten Billion Dollars) by the US Government in 2008 as part of the Auto bailout. Have yet to pay it back (with interest). Probably never will. Same with Chrysler (not sure how much they took). Ford did not accept any bailout money. They instead, put up their real estate holdings as collateral for loans from private banks to stay in business. How soon we forget.
Lithium isn’t the only substance needed for electric batteries. Cobalt & nickel are also components.
Not subscribing coz of the Lizard in the background 🙏…remove it please
hey kyle, i was working at an engineering firm as transportation planner and one of our main tasks was to create long term EV charging infrastructure plans for various US states. rest assured, EV friendly highway corridors are on the way. its just a matter of gaining government support for the energy transition and implementing suitable EV infrastructure to mitigate the range anxiety of potential EV users like yourself. fingers crossed, you should be EV road tripping in the near future
We live in Wisconsin and took a trip in are model Y to Nashville, the tail of the dragon, and Charleston south Carolina. In the whole trip we only had to stop one time specifically because of driving an electric vehicle it added an extra 10-15 minutes to what was a week long trip. I fully believe charging technology with Tesla and the newest EV’s such as from VW, Kia, and Hyundai are not only the future but here now in the present. The only excuse now not to get a personal EV would be price. (Or of course a very specific use case where it doesn’t make sense)
You won’t want a thirty minute break every four to five hours? Granted currently there is not good stops other than parking spaces to rest for charging.
Very enlightening. You cover issues that no one is even aware of. . .
I certainly learned some things. Thanks 👍 keep up the good work.
I appreciate the "nerdy" research into global lithium reserves, the North American grid, and the instability of petroleum rich regions.
How com SAIC sold 5.3 million cars, but it did not make your top 10?
BMW sold 2.5 million and it’s #10, Honda sold 4.5 million and #6, and SAIC who sold 5.3 million is excluded in the list?
Make sense????
Geely is not the kind of private company by western standard. Its boss is a relative of a high ranking statesmen, that’s why Geely managed to get the loan from the bank when nobody thought the Volvo purchase would be profitable. Luckily things turned out well.
Just think about how the Mikoyan Design Bureau rised… when one of the CCCP statesman was named Mikoyan.
Is it ecological to mine all lithium that we need for 2030 battery progress?
I need at least a 1200 Mile range on a single charge, charge to 80% in 10 minutes for under $35,000 before I consider switching.
Best channel in YouTube so far
I’m not ready to go all in EV for precisely the reason you are reluctant–just not very efficient for traveling. I do however own a hybrid and I sure do love the mileage I get per gallon of gasoline. I figure it every 1,000 miles and right now I’m at 57+. The battery seems much more efficient in warmer weather. In the winter I only get mid to upper 40s.
Well the future of the automotive industry certainly looks bleak. It’s already bad enough trying to find a car with a manual transmission. I’m glad I only have about 30 years left, Lord willing, because what I’m not gonna do is drive a car with an automatic transmission. As it is I’ll probably be stuck with a 30 year old clunker to maintain a proper driving experience.
lmao common now, you know better than to believe those target dates….
My Japanese brand car made in Canada is not as good quality as my prior Japanese brand car made in Japan. Quality varies on where the plant is located.
It just about like the 0.001% bought all this new green garbage and are now pushing on us
Lol California would never let them mine all that Lithium anyway.
Yep, gotta figure out long distance or quick charge batteries. I heard something about Greenland having a lot of rare earth metals possibly.
I loved this video
They are going to have to build out the power grid in Alaska if they want charging stations for electric vehicles. There are big gaps where there is no local power grid and people along these highways depend on generators on site to power their home of business. Many of these places are also seasonal.
I don’t get the push to go 100% electric. Whatever happened to hybrid vehicles? It would be nice to have the option to use either electric or gas depending on the situation. Anyway, if they plan on going all electric in 2040, I will make sure to purchase my last gas powered vehicle in 2039.
Toyota gang
Great and proper pronunciation of all the company names save one; Hyundai. It rhymes with "sunday". That was Hyunsais very first advertising tagline. "Hyundai. Open Sunday." When they first came to the US in the mid 80s.
Incredibly well put together. I’m with you on road-trip requirements! Your end shot did not disappoint 😊
I almost spat out my food when I heard (what I assumed was spelt) "Dongfang"
You don’t have to be a late adopter to an EV as long as one of the vehicles jn your household is an ICE. We don’t take long car trips at the same time with both cars so the mix of one EV and one Gas car has worked well for us, in fact with todays gas prices we try to drive our gas car as little as possible.
Subscribed!
King, please do a video focused on Korea!
Students should supplement the lessons they learn in high school Civics/Econ classes with this video. (Or vice versa)
Very thought provoking, thank you.
Great concept, suggestions: geography of solar, geothermal, steel, copper mining,
what are you talking about cant find credible resources on the lithium reserves (outside of how environmentally damaging those mines are and the child slavery involved) The total global reserves are estimated at 14 million tons. which isnt NEARLY enough
Informative well done Geo King! In Europe, surprised that only Germany and Spain were major auto makers (assembly plants), no UK or Italy. Also Eastern Europe is still not impacted despite being EU members. Also curious if Russia is in the mix or do they just produce off road vehicles? Living in Detroit Metro area we see Canadian assemby products daily transporting thru the Canadian border crossings at Port Huron and Windsor. I believe most of Canada assembly is done thru Southern Ontario along the Hwy 400 corridor?? Great Concept maping out who and where.. And like some of the other replies, maybe you can take on other products of universal interest. Perhaps wheat with the on going war squeezing supplies. Maybe take a reader poll!
The Uk has a lot of car manufactures how ever most are small builders – rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston martin, lotus, the bigger ones are jaguar land rover and Vauxhall who is just another name for Opel many cars made by other companies Nissan Toyota stalantis Renault and Honda but that’s going to could but could be come tesla and then they the tiny makers like Morgan and aerial or bac and tvr soon to make a return
Oil is not a fossil fuel!
Great shows!
I hope I get to buy the last new Chevy with a V-8.
Thank you I mate I love your channel