> Their batteries make them heavier than a traditional car, and draw heavily on the extraction of rare earth elements
i think your academy is a diploma mill
quoting https://www.sneci.com/blog/are-rare-earths-an-issue-in-the-p... which actually does have something resembling academic rigor
> 15 years ago, the first hybrid vehicles, notably the Toyota Prius and the Honda, were equipped with NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries whose negative electrode (anode) was made of a lanthanum-pentanickel alloy (LaNi₅).
> These batteries in the first generation of hybrid vehicles contained about ten kilos of lanthanum, which is a rare earth.
> However, today this battery technology has been replaced by the family of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries with much higher performance.
> While some Toyota hybrids sold in Europe are still equipped with NiMH batteries, the vast majority of hybrid and electric vehicles today are equipped with Li-ion batteries… which do not contain rare earths.
> Of course, they contain lithium, cobalt and nickel, but as mentioned above, these metals are not rare earths and do not pose the same problems.
most of the rest of the article explains why rare earths are a red herring and the historical background on why people were concerned about them 15 years ago
> In short, rare earths are not rare at all, the world’s reserves are large, well distributed in the 5 continents and no shortage is to be feared for a long time.