An EV battery pack relies on a surprisingly long list of raw materials, from well-known metals like lithium and cobalt to less obvious ones like graphite, copper, and specialty polymers. The exact mix depends on the battery chemistry, but most electric vehicles on the road today use some version of a lithium-ion cell. Here’s what goes into making one.
Cathode Metals: The Biggest Variable
The cathode is the single most expensive component of a lithium-ion battery, and it’s where the chemistry differences show up. The two dominant cathode types in EVs today are NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) and LFP (lithium iron phosphate), and they require very different raw materials.
NCM cathodes use lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. The industry has been shifting toward nickel-rich formulations like NCM 811, which is 80% nickel, 10% cobalt, and 10% manganese by metal content. Nickel is the main driver of energy density: more nickel means more range per kilogram of battery. Cobalt improves structural stability but is expensive and raises ethical sourcing concerns, so manufacturers have been steadily reducing the cobalt share. Older formulations like NCM 523 used significantly more cobalt than today’s cells.
LFP cathodes take a completely different approach. They use lithium, iron, and phosphorus, skipping nickel and cobalt entirely. Iron and phosphorus are abundant and cheap, which makes LFP packs less expensive to produce. The tradeoff is lower energy density, meaning a heavier pack for the same range. LFP has gained major market share in recent years, particularly in standard-range vehicles, because of its safety advantages and long lifespan.
How Much Lithium Goes Into a Battery
Lithium is present in every lithium-ion battery regardless of cathode chemistry. It appears in the cathode, in the electrolyte solution, and as the ion that shuttles charge back and forth during use. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the best estimate is about 160 grams of lithium metal per kilowatt-hour of battery capacity, which translates to roughly 850 grams of lithium carbonate equivalent per kWh.
For a typical 60 kWh EV battery pack, that works out to about 51 kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent. Lithium is primarily extracted from brine deposits in South America or hard-rock mines in Australia, and refining it into battery-grade material adds significant processing steps.
Graphite: The Anode Material
While cathode metals get most of the attention, graphite is actually the largest single material by weight in a lithium-ion cell. The anode, the electrode that stores lithium ions when the battery charges, is almost entirely made of graphite.
Two types are used: natural graphite, mined and then processed into tiny spheres, and synthetic graphite, manufactured from petroleum coke at high temperatures. Natural graphite held about 39% of the anode material market as of 2020, with synthetic graphite making up the rest. Natural graphite is cheaper and available in large reserves, but synthetic graphite offers more consistent performance. Most battery makers use a blend of both.
Silicon is increasingly being added to graphite anodes in small amounts to boost energy density. Current research and early commercial cells are testing silicon content between 5% and 20% by weight. Bumping the silicon share from 10% to 15% improves the amount of energy the anode can store by roughly 16%, a meaningful gain. The challenge is that silicon expands and contracts dramatically during charging, which can degrade the cell over time. For now, most production cells contain only a small percentage of silicon mixed into a graphite base.
Copper and Aluminum
Every lithium-ion cell needs thin metal foils to collect the electrical current from each electrode. Copper foil serves as the current collector on the anode side, and aluminum foil does the same job on the cathode side. These foils are extraordinarily thin, typically around 10 micrometers for copper, but they add up across thousands of cells.
A typical EV battery pack contains about 33 kilograms of copper, with 80 to 90% of that weight going to anode current collectors. The copper intensity works out to roughly 0.3 to 0.4 kilograms per kWh for common cell types. Copper can’t easily be swapped out on the anode side because other metals corrode in contact with the electrolyte at those voltages. Aluminum foil makes up about 4% of a cell’s weight, while copper foil accounts for about 8%.
Electrolyte Components
The electrolyte is the liquid medium that allows lithium ions to travel between the anode and cathode inside each cell. Commercial lithium-ion batteries use a lithium salt dissolved in an organic solvent. The salt provides the lithium ions, while the solvent allows them to flow freely.
The solvent is typically a blend of organic carbonates, which are petroleum-derived chemicals chosen for their ability to conduct ions without reacting with the electrodes. The raw inputs here are relatively common industrial chemicals, but the purity standards for battery-grade electrolyte are extremely high. Some manufacturers are exploring alternatives like ionic liquids, which are non-flammable and more thermally stable, but organic-carbonate electrolytes remain the industry standard.
Separators: Thin Polymer Films
Sitting between the anode and cathode in every cell is a separator, a microscopically thin porous membrane that prevents the two electrodes from touching while still allowing lithium ions to pass through. Most commercial separators are made from polypropylene, polyethylene, or a combination of the two.
A common design is a trilayer structure: polypropylene on the outside for mechanical strength and a polyethylene layer in the middle that acts as a safety shutoff. If the cell overheats, the polyethylene melts first (because it has a lower melting point), closing its pores and stopping ion flow before the polypropylene layer fails. The raw materials are standard plastics, but the manufacturing process to create uniform, nanoscale pores across large sheets is highly specialized.
The Full Material Picture
Pulling it all together, here are the primary raw materials that go into an EV battery pack:
- Lithium: present in every chemistry, used in the cathode, electrolyte, and as the working ion
- Nickel: the main energy-density driver in NCM cathodes
- Cobalt: stabilizes the cathode structure in NCM cells, used in shrinking amounts
- Manganese: supports thermal stability in NCM cathodes
- Iron and phosphorus: the cathode metals in LFP batteries
- Graphite: the dominant anode material, both mined and synthetic
- Silicon: added in small percentages to boost anode capacity
- Copper: anode current collector foil, roughly 33 kg per pack
- Aluminum: cathode current collector foil and pack housing
- Polypropylene and polyethylene: separator membranes
- Organic carbonate solvents: the liquid electrolyte base
Rare Earths in the Motor
While not part of the battery itself, EV drivetrains often require rare earth elements that are worth mentioning since they’re frequently grouped into the same supply chain conversation. Most EV traction motors use powerful permanent magnets made from neodymium iron boron. These magnets enable the compact, high-torque motor designs that make EVs perform well. Dysprosium, another rare earth element, is sometimes added to maintain magnet strength at high temperatures.
Some automakers are moving toward motor designs that eliminate rare earth magnets entirely, using reluctance or induction motors instead. But neodymium-based magnets remain the dominant choice for their combination of power density and efficiency, making neodymium and dysprosium part of the broader raw material footprint of an electric vehicle.