As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms

[steven johnson]

Each electric Prius motor requires 2.2 lb of neodymium, and each battery uses 22-33 lb of lanthanum. That number will nearly double under Toyota's plans to boost the car's fuel economy.

With Toyota, Ford and the chinese making big plans to expand hubrid manufacturing, the shortages of rare earth metals may become rarer.

he Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells.
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tons annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.
Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make he high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Fusion, as well as in generators for wind turbines.


As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms

[madrchsod]

1. Bolivia and China have close to 50% of the world`s lithium.