The corporate electric vehicle transition: driving injustices for communities globally

May 19, 2025 | News

The unjust, corporate led transition

The decision by global automotive giant Stellantis to close its Luton van factory, with the loss of over 1000 workers’ jobs, has laid bare the grave situation facing workers in the UK’s automotive industry. A storm of corporate profiteering, automation, and the shift from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), has meant the threat of factory closures and job losses, for both workers producing vehicles and workers across the UK’s automotive supply chain.

Yet the corporate-led automotive transition is also driving injustices for workers and mine affected communities across the supply chain globally. The production of EVs requires lithium-ion batteries, which are produced in gigafactories – large, high volume battery manufacturing facilities. The UK Government states that to provide the battery capacity needed to maintain existing levels of automotive production, but shift entirely to EVs, the UK would need 200 GWh of battery manufacturing capacity by 2040, approximately 10 gigafactories.

Lithium-ion batteries require huge quantities of minerals including lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper. According to the latest statistics none of these minerals are mined in the UK, meaning despite some plans for domestic mining UK manufacturers are overwhelmingly dependent on imports from other countries. 10 lithium-ion battery gigafactories would vastly increase the UK’s demand for these minerals, and mean the UK would be consuming a disproportionate and inequitable share of the world’s resources. This would lead to severe impacts for mine affected communities and workers globally.

The UK would, by 2040, every year require nearly a fifth of the world’s mined lithium, 6% of the world’s nickel, and 15% of the world’s cobalt.

The huge expansions of mining that would be needed to meet skyrocketing UK mineral demands would be felt overwhelmingly by workers and communities in the Global South. Many of the world’s biggest mining companies are British, listed on the London Stock Exchange and headquartered in London, and are at the heart of driving these injustices.

A just, worker-led transition

There is another way to deliver the decarbonisation of the transport sector that is so urgently needed. By investing rapidly in scaling up public transport and active forms of travel, the UK can create a diversified transportation system which reduces reliance on private vehicles. While electrified public transport still requires batteries and minerals, public transport EVs are much more efficient and require far lower quantities of minerals per rider.

By investing in battery recycling, and car remanufacturing infrastructure, the UK can also reduce the need for new mining to create lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, moving towards a circular economy model. Not only would this reduce the need for new mining, but it would create thousands of manufacturing jobs.

Research from the United States shows that, by investing in public transport, reducing the size of vehicles that are produced, and scaling up battery recycling infrastructure, potential increases in lithium demand can be reduced by 92%. Similar reductions could be expected in the UK. The research also demonstrates that a diversified transport system, with less private vehicles but an expansion of mobility options – including public transport and safe streets – would produce a net increase of 2.4 million jobs.

A transition in the interests of people not profit can only come from, and be designed by, workers themselves. Worker-led transition plans outline how production could be transitioned, and the training and reskilling necessary for workers to ensure they are able to maintain jobs on equal terms and conditions. From grassroots automotive workers in the UAW trade union in the United States organising for supply chain justice, to GKN workers in Italy who fought for plans to transition from producing luxury cars to solar panels and cargo bikes, we know this is possible.

As workers in the UK resist corporate attacks and job losses, it is crucial that the climate movement stands with them in solidarity. We cannot accept the loss of secure, decently paid jobs under the guise of decarbonisation. At the same time, it is crucial that trade unions in the UK and across the Global North build solidarity with workers and communities on the frontlines of resistance to the expansion of mining for battery minerals globally. Transition plans must minimise mineral demands, through prioritising public transit over EV production and scaling up recycling infrastructure, and deliver supply chain justice.

Download PDF with source data used for the graphs.

SOURCE: https://londonminingnetwork.org/2025/05/the-corporate-ev-transition-driving-injustices/