Why is there an increased focus on critical minerals for electric vehicles?

Electric vehicles need special kinds of minerals to work well, and we're running out of them faster than we thought.

Imagine you have a toy car that needs super strong batteries to go really fast and far. These batteries are made from critical minerals, like lithium and cobalt, they’re like the supercharged fuel for your toy car. Now think about all the real electric cars being built today; they need lots of these special minerals too.

• Just like you need more blocks to build a bigger tower, we need more critical minerals to make more electric vehicles.
• We’re using them faster than we can find new ones, it’s like eating all your candy before the bag is even half empty!

If we don’t find more of these special minerals soon, making lots of electric cars will get harder and maybe more expensive. That means your toy car (or real one) might not be as fast or far-reaching, or it could cost more to buy.

So, people are working hard to find more critical minerals around the world, like digging up new treasure maps!