Sosokrates
Report me if I continue to console war
Unless we switch from lithium to something different then I don't see what will cause prices to come down to the degree they need to in order to make EV's affordable for everyone on a mass scale.
It's a finite resource, it's energy and resource intensive to mine, it's expensive to mine. In order for this to be a meaningful, sustainable and affordable endeavour we need to shift to renewables, not just shift the burden.
A note on China - they own a huge % share (over 50% in some instances and it gets even worse of you look at processing and refining) of market share for a lot of resources that are required for EV batteries so I question how incentivised they are to conduct the necessary R&D to find a viable alternative that is both cheaper and sustainable. They stand to gain more than anyone else during the EV adoption phase. I'd also go as far as to say any alternative they do come up with will also require everyone going through them to get the necessary materials.
Regarding Sustainability, it better then ICE vehicles, which have an estimated of about 50yrs until we run out of oil
https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/fossil-fuels-run/
battery chemicals are estimated to last 185 yrs
https://youmatter.world/en/are-electric-cars-eco-friendly-and-zero-emission-vehicles-26440/
so combine that with less local polution and better performance I would still say EVs are the better option, and they get cheaper.or specifically cheaper models will be introduced.