I germany where reign supreme there are 47000000 cars on its roads in a cities a choking on dangerously high levels of particulate matter nitrogen oxides and enormous c o 2 emissions the government has bought to proposals for driving bans and speed limits now its decided electric cars full fix the problem. In this new day we need to rid transportation of it c o 2 footprint and electro mobility is a key part of that and switch to get. Going green on germanys rides electric my ability is promoted as the ticket to a clean future and one of the Fastest Growing sectors in the global markets. Seem to be some yeah thats france germany and the e. U. Came to supply 30 percent of global battery demand by 2030. 2 in the. Gym. And carmakers also have ambitious plans. To get shots in the same yard by 20251 in 5 models and the b. M. W. Group will be electric but our electric cars are really the solution. In a way with their bills and you cant talk about clean energy for countries like germany if youre destroying peoples livelihoods elsewhere. Than when you know. How clean it is electric my bill is really. In his electric car rolling sure in his on his way to his bakery in the town of hilton in north rhinewestphalia every saturday a group of electric current meets up here for breakfast. U. S. Manufacturer tesla is still all the rage. Test lot this is true test was a bit like a religion for me its like the sunshine its a real solution that offers a way out of the dilemma is on top certainly also the mind that not. All of the electric car owners here are convinced that theyre helping the environment. Until it was told its great not to pollute we have solar panels at home in our utility supplies energy from renewable so you know my conscience is green on by large drive an electric car because environmentally friendly economical and that was key. There most by rolling sure and also drives an electric car to help protect the environment he fills up his electric car outside the bakery and his own charging station. I think for a visit electric mobility is a mentally important for saving the environment because at the moment theres no cheaper more environmentally friendly c o 2 friendly mode of private transport their individuality will be in fear. For the Breakfast Club drive as electric cars are the only way to marry personal car ownership with Environmental Protection. Theres really no version of people buying new cars should stop using Combustion Engines and refuse to be talked into buying a new diesel because it will soon be banned anyway. By electric now with our government should promote electric cars and developer noble Energy Sources in parallel. And again then the problem would be solved. I wish the earth. Because compared to gasoline and diesel the electric car has one advantage its engine does not admit any exhaust fumes electric cars powered by the electric motor the energy for this comes from a battery built into the car floor the battery is the central and largest element of an electric car depending on the model it weighs several 100 kilos very small materials and need it for the battery the most important thing is lithium so where does it come from. We set off for south america to argentina and the province of hopefully more than 60 percent of the worlds lithium reserves are located here in the andean highlands in the socalled lithium triangle that straddles argentina bolivia and chile. Its an inhospitable extremely dry region with sparse vegetation that only sees rain once a year river lets trickle for just a few kilometers before running dry water is a precious commodity the indigenous color have lived in the region for centuries today their people number more than 100000 schools man breeds animals that his farm up here in the mountains. They were parts of the gaelic well i represent the aperture to collective and we opposed lithium mining theres very little water here of large amounts of water are withdrawn from mining it compounds the air conditions of a month and were all very concerned about the threat posed to our natural environment. In the 3rd movie movie we are a month looked up. Near guzmans farm the salt lake some larger overawes lots of now to choose a 4000 meters above sea level. Beneath its salt surface crossed is a deep basin of brine it contains high concentrations of the cover to deposit lithium. Workers from the Mining Company celeste a wholly pumped the prime to the surface this was the 1st major lithium mine here a 2nd company excise expanding another plant and testing is underway at other salt lakes in the region where the lithium is just booming right now we extract it from deep below the salt lake this well as 450 meters deep its currently pumping 55 liters per 2nd we plan to install 30 such wells in the coming months. The company pumps the brine into huge basins workers are constructing a new basin several 100 meters long and wide immense quantities of brine of removed for the production of lithium every year 10000000000 liters of processed at this salt lake alone to extract lithium the brine is left to evaporate under the hot sun. After 6 months lithium makes up 6 percent of the concentrated brine. Its fed into the plant which processes it for industrial use. He was we had chemicals to separate the other minerals in the brine so that in the end all that remains as the highly concentrated lithium we think of is a somewhat more doesnt that in the field. Its a protracted procedure but its become highly lucrative fueled by the demand for batteries to Power Electric cars exploratory systems being installed across the salt fly. Its of chile bolivia and argentina not least because of the price for lithium has seen a 7 fold increase in recent years investors call it White Petroleum or white gold this is. The deal this is the Lithium Carbonate or end product. Its a powder was it worth. Earth is. One time costs around 14000. 00. Whats a kilo worth i cant convert that all apply. To. A white gold rush. With devastating impact on the unique salt flats of the andes as an existential threat to dwindle in Water Resources in this era great. For their production Mining Companies need millions of latests of precious fresh water in addition pumping brine from the depths of salt lakes pushes scarce groundwater from the edges into the middle of the likes where it mixes with the salt water and is rendered unusable. Water that accumulated at the 10s of thousands of years and keeps the ecosystem in balance is wasted within the space of a few years. But that water is vital for the people who live around the salt lakes they depend on it to cultivate the barren soil and break llamas and goats every later counts now entire reserves are drying up in the near future farming will no longer be possible near the lithium pools and its not only water scarcity thats a problem some of the chemicals used during the lithium extraction process turn into toxic dust thats transported by the wind. Farm in the wild if there is a natural we suffer from air pollution it will work out the a lot of things are carried on the wind like lime caustic soda and part ash or. One of the 3 chemicals together are more aggressive than one alone youre right impacts agriculture on the fuel plants that grow here but also the animals. Weve seen llamas gold. Wind because of the dust in some places. Thomas from other villages have also chronicled the effects of toxic dust on the eyes of the animals whose wool and meat a key to the livelihoods of the indigenous people. The color settled in this area even before the incas but now lithium is threatening their way of life. Our culture has a Spiritual Connection with the salt lake and you know of since time immemorial we have appreciated the richness of nature the many birds and also our llamas graze there and thats why we say no to lithium mining. Mining across the region can no longer be stopped who needs all this lithium. And this man is part of the answer. He can mask tech billionaire and electric car pioneer. There on which his Company Tesla ilan last showed the world that electric mobility could be sexy in 2016 he introduced model 3 the 1st electric car for the mass market. In terms of production. The thing thats going to be a major challenge for us over the next 6 to 9 months is how do. Batteries at the key ingredient construction on Teslas Gigafactory one in the nevada desert near reno has been underway since 2014 we wanted to visit the factory ourselves but were not given permission to film. The plant 35 gigawatt hours capacity could produce batteries for about 500000. 00 electric vehicles a year. Then on top of that we have a factory thats actually now the largest battery factory in the world and when its done. More like in my batteries than the rest of production by for one building. But tesla isnt just building batteries in nevada its also got plants in new york and china with a 4th in the pipeline for europe. And the demand for batteries to Power Electric cars is not only growing at tesla at the paris moesha show in 2018 german come Makers Showcase their latest top of the range models like diamonds e. Q. C. Audi premiered its brand new. And b. M. W. And found its concept car the i x 31 of 25 models planned in the next few years according to Management Board member Klaus Froehlich group this club for us its clear that by 2025 our entire portfolio ranging from the b. M. W. One series to the 7 series or the x 5 will be fully electric does this fall apart for you. When it comes to shifting to electric cars german manufacturers have put the pedal to the metal. Apart from b. M. W. Folks are going for cs 80 new electric models by 2025 porsche wants half of its fleet to be electric by then and diana is investing 10000000000 euros in the development of electric vehicles all towing the governments line for germanys Automotive Industry. Many of the governments measures have gained traction and i expect we will see a huge increase in the next few years and thats already evident from the plans the manufacturers have announced. To stimulate demand the government is offering incentives like a purchase rent tax breaks d free parking and funding for research and development all part of a strategy set out a decade ago in the National ElectroMobility Development plan it was drafted by a panel of experts from the fields of politics industry science and environmental groups and encourage them and heads the National Platform future of mobility and has direct access to the chancellor his brief is to get as many electric cars onto german roads as possible to achieve germanys climate goals for the transport sector by 2030. C. Investment of course we have to see whats feasible initially the government set a target of 6000000 cars currently the model puts the figure in the range of 6 to 7 and a half 1000000 by the by the but theyre also demands that goes high as 10000000 people will have to see how many cars the manufacturers can produce the book. But those cars will need customers carmakers have identified range as the Sticking Point dime less as its q. C. Will cover 450 kilometers. Out easy tron 417 kilometers b. M. W. s i extremely well have a range of 400 kilometers. And b. M. W. I next unveiled in december trumps them all with a purported range of 650 kilometers what is striking is that all these models are s. U. V. S because you can only travel far in electric cars with large and heavy batteries and they need a lot of space in large bodies. To think of as im sure frequent its a step towards customer acceptance in which were trying to explain to customers that electra mobility is actually nothing revolutionary so its not its just another way to drive a vehicle so its now your custom to. Driving a certain range with your internal Combustion Engine vehicle its logical to expect the same range from an electric car with a bottom but. B. M. W. Sees its future here in the the very end countryside the group has established its electron Mobility Competence Center in tingle thing its i nexus it to roll of the Assembly Line here in 2 years time will cohost my heads the plant. Those are some of their figures here its a doing of things site the i next is a real opportunity its the 1st fully electric model will produce to that end the plant is currently being expanded to encompass 80000 square metres. The b. M. W. The mobility is the number one growth market. Has been shut in the same year we estimate that by 22051. 00 in 5 b. M. W. Models will be electric that means electric power trains will account for 20 percent sales across the group. On the road to an electrically powered future. So you know for now we expect worldwide demand for battery cells to increase more than 10 fold in the next 11 years. I demand fueling the need for lithium. Back in the engine highlands of argentina. We are in green qana d. S. Here on the edge of the salt lake the disastrous effects of lithium mining are already apparent. The village is one of 33. 00 communities in the region that have joined forces to fight the corporations. In an imbecilic economy moving when i started mining lithium here the water in the village became increasingly scarce young man them. And yeah man how theyre used to be enough water to irrigate our gardens but today. There isnt enough. But Mining Companies have only just begun to drill here the locals are not prepared to sit back and accept the destruction of their Ancestral Lands the arid region has been their home for centuries. Weve begun building up Rural Tourism here in this community and also in neighboring villages around the lagoon and when alone. They start drilling it will jeopardize everything weve achieved below the 3rd because theyll leave their toxic waste behind here with us. When i go on. Protest action by the villagers has made waves across the country. Theyve set up roadblocks and staged demonstrations at home and taken their case to court in the capital point to saras as a result some applications for drilling have been temporarily denied. But the government continues to carve the land up among the multinationals violating their human and civil rights. The leader of the resistance Clemente Flores is himself a llama breeder and pharma. Hes also had 1st hand experience of the threat of lithium mining poses. The water he needs to sustain his small farm is getting scarcer and scarcer. There was a this well is 12 meters deep down there the water used to be about one and a half meters deep in august we took a new measurement there were only 50 centimeters the water table has dropped drastically. There is a miracle of nature here freshwater springs in the middle of a white crossed the springs form small makes news hostile desert environment but this unique ecosystem is under threat experts from the german n. G. O. S bread for the world have studied the impact of lithium mining. I know tonally a tonne of lithium requires burning off 2000000 liters of water the problem is this is such an extremely arid region that in the long run will be pumped dry. For the back of a single electric car up to 80000 liters of precious water disappear from here forever. And its not just the land of farmers and their animals thats under threat. Here violent argentinian when we were in argentina we also travelled to the quieter oakleigh goun and we saw this incredible sight i mean hundreds of flamingoes the whole lagoon is full of flamingoes its get us the lagoon is as good as sold to Mining Companies so in the next few years itll be covered with concrete pools and its very clear the flamingos will disappear on his guns bad as the flamingo especially if. The government recently auctioned off mining concessions for the extraction of lithium in the massive salt flats salinas gland us the indigenous population feels transported back to the time when colonial powers brought the land beneath their feet today its their own government thats in the past they have no formal land rights its land that they have cultivated for centuries. But it belongs to the government and whoever owns the land controls the water. And the group was in the its a matter of life and death if they pump so much water out of here in such a short space of time and we know what a huge amount it is then in the next 5 or 6 years we will lose so much water that the land here will turn into a real desert. Then it wont just be impossible to farm or herd animals we wont be able to live here at all. In the near future lithium mining could spell the end of a centuries old culture and a unique ecosystem scientists like harold lish are alarmed. Here go hold on to we used to get oil from somewhere and accepted in inverted commas the environmental damage there we didnt care i doubt the ems if you ask industry where do the Raw Materials actually come from it answers oh theyre just delivered its just business as usual this is basically we dont want to hear anything at all about the environmental damage were causing with our transport modes and europe or north america and many other countries are being bused visual. Germanys economy is the worlds 5th Largest Consumer of medical resources its also most of industry acquires them through a network of supply as its virtually impossible to control the side as it were to fargo its a very good question whether the sources are sustainable and above all whether the mining methods are in line with roughly german standards the industry will have to make sure that it imposes appropriate requirements and ensures transparency in the countries where its source is the Raw Materials it has in fact made that commitment thats out says hell finish that. How do german carmakers ensure their suppliers are maintaining Environmental Standards audi answered d. Since we do not do business directly with raw material producers we have integrated sustainability requirement