My son works at mira testing ev components & batteries. So is working with cutting edge ev stuff. His view & that of most of his fellow engineers is that lithium batteries were fixated on by the motor manufacturers as they were the first really viable battery technology available. Corporate inertia means that the EV manufacturers have invested too much time & money in lithium to get out of it until they really have to. But it remains a difficult metal to mine & extract & has problems such as its fire risk.
Much is said of hydrogen, most production comes from cracking methane but that leaves large amounts of Co2 which you dont want! Other way is electrolysing water, ineffecient as you have to burn electricity to do it, lots of it on any scale. Then you have to contain the stuff & its propensity to escape & leak is well known in industry.
If you want long range ev's with high power to weight ratio they should be looking at fuel cell technology such as Aluminium air, 5 or 6 times the energy density of lithium, safe & easily recyclable. That shows real promise & if ever adopted or something like it the ev will have come of age.
Pity the British company that invented it sold up to the French!
. The next bits were going to be rendered so even more sand used.
