## 2 What Is the Problem with Electric Powertrains?
It has been published that producing (without including recycling) a set of batteries from a certain model of Tesla car generates more CO\({}_{2}\) emissions than driving a petrol engine for seven years. I wonder, will these battery sets last for seven years? * Recycling is compulsory for the massive use of immature technologies such as batteries for powering cars. It is a costly process that is needed to avoid thousands of tons of electric waste that could be the short-term consequence of massive use of electric cars. It is not simple, nor cheap, nor efficient sometimes, according to what happens with actual e-waste from cell phones and computers. So, costs for users and the environment would grow exponentially with volume until the proper recycling of battery technologies is developed. * Materials supply means mainly cobalt supply. Cobalt is needed for the anode of lithium ion batteries, and cobalt ore is mainly extracted from the Democratic Republic of Congo and mainly refined in China, so geopolitical issues and insecurity in the supply presents serious issues. However, not only cobalt, but also the largest lithium reserves are concentrated in only a few countries: Chile, Argentina, China (Tibet), Australia, and Bolivia--with further mining development--and its price is growing sharply. Therefore, geopolitical and supply cost issues with crude oil (nowadays mitigated thanks to fracking) can be easily transferred from Persian Gulf countries to South America's cone countries, as well as China, which controls a large share of refined cobalt and has large lithium proved reserves. The second big problem is that we are not talking about technologies of information and communication (TICs) with an exponentially growing velocity of data management and transmission. We are talking about mass, energy, power, and the second principle of thermodynamics, which many people (especially journalist and politics) neglect. Just as the public understands the impact of gravity or friction forces in transport technologies, they should know how restrictive the second principle of thermodynamics is, and how true it is. The issue is that electricity has to be produced, that on average 90% is being produced from non-renewable sources of energy (with about 60% losses), and that it has to be transported (with subsequent 20% losses). Unfortunately, renewable sources are only about 10% of the world mix and we do not have a midterm forecast of this figure increasing significantly. In some countries like China, the USA, or Germany coal is still the largest source of energy in their mix of electricity production. Countries with real alternatives to CO\({}_{2}\)-emitting technologies are basically nuclear, such as France or Japan. So, it is clear that with the actual mix and from well-to-wheel, the electric powertrain technologies will not reduce global CO\({}_{2}\) emissions if we do not go nuclear in a massive way. Maybe when nuclear fusion will be an economically feasible alternative will this second big problem will disappear. In the time being, gaseous emissions are only being delocalized from cities to big power plant locations. Unfortunately, the global warming issue cannot be delocalized and atmospheric phenomena do not know about borders, as acid rains and clouds of particulate matter (PM) have proven repeatedly.