¿SUV hambrientos de tierras raras como desafío para la transición energética?

In Germany, the trend among many car buyers is toward large, spacious, and safe vehicles. Some would even describe them as tank-like. Critics of SUVs primarily accuse these vehicles of wasting energy—and they do not stop at electric models.

Electric SUVs, according to one accusation, jeopardize the energy transition because they consume too much electricity. The construction of their massive batteries is said to further exacerbate the scarcity of raw materials such as rare earths. An e-SUV battery is approximately three times as large as that of a conventional electric car, and considerably heavier. For instance, the power source of a Mercedes EQC SUV weighs about as much as an entire Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, a small Chinese electric car.

A battery three times larger means approximately three times as much neodymium oxide and three times as much dysprosium oxide. These rare earths are indeed very scarce, especially since the automotive industry has been using more and more of them, even before the energy transition: according to a study by a professor at Chalmers University of Technology together with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), the quantity of rare earths installed in vehicles across the EU has been rising since 2006. Since that year, the use of neodymium oxide has increased by 400%, and dysprosium oxide by as much as 1,700%.

Because rare earths represent a bottleneck for the electric mobility transition, Marcel Weil from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis views the SUV trend critically. This is because the demand for critical metals for electric vehicles is expected to increase drastically by 2050.

We, on the other hand, believe it is wrong to dictate to consumers which cars they should drive. Instead, we should provide industry and consumers with access to the raw materials for the transportation of the future. By investing in neodymium oxide and dysprosium oxide, you bring these raw materials to Europe and, as a side benefit, have the prospect of attractive, tax-free returns.