The race to produce lithium

The Indicator from Planet Money

15-01-2025 • 8 mins

Lithium is one of the hot commodities of the 21st century: needed for electric vehicles, semiconductors needed for AI, and grid-scale batteries. While the U.S. was once a pioneer in lithium production, it's fallen off — with others, including China, taking the reins. On our third and final episode of our grid battery series, we look at the race to produce the key ingredient in most of these batteries.

Related episodes:
How batteries are already changing the grid (Apple / Spotify)
How EV batteries tore apart Michigan (Update) (Apple / Spotify)
The surprising leader in EVs (Apple / Spotify)
How China became solar royalty (Apple / Spotify)

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