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The gasoline and diesel consumption of cars in Germany can fall by 56 percent by 2035 if only new electric cars are registered by then. This emerges from an invoice by the Freiburg Eco-Institute on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry. The development is compared with the year 2020. The changeover means that significantly more fossil fuels can be saved than would be used to cover the additional electricity requirements of e-cars, according to the study. In the medium term, such a scenario would also result in “a significant reduction in the number of oil processing plants required”.
The Öko-Institut has examined how the resource consumption of fossil fuels and metals can develop in combustion engines and electric vehicles by 2035.
The demand for primary metals for lithium-ion batteries - especially the key raw materials lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper - could therefore peak around 2035.
The growing use of recycled batteries also contributes to coverage.
In contrast, the consumption of platinum, palladium or rhodium for the catalytic converters in combustion exhaust systems is falling sharply.
The authors of the study recommend that the federal government set ambitious recycling targets for battery raw materials, as proposed by the EU Commission, and build a circular economy for so-called rare earths.
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