Graphite supply issues are forcing EV battery makers to reassess their sourcing strategies, as geopolitical risks and rising demand underscore the urgent need for circular recovery and domestic alternatives. 

EV Battery Makers Are Grappling with Graphite

Graphite is used as the negative electrode, or anode, in a lithium-ion battery. Currently, approximately 85% of graphite is sourced from China. A rival to naturally occurring graphite is its synthetic equivalent; however, environmental concerns surrounding its production pose significant challenges for the automotive sector. Al Bedwell, Director of Global Powertrain at LMC Automotive, considers the alternatives to graphite in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Graphite comprises the vast majority of the anode (95%) in a typical Li-ion battery fitted to a battery electric vehicle (BEV), and approximately 1 kg of graphite is required per kWh of battery energy, making it, by weight, the most significant component of the battery cell. 

China has achieved a dominant position in the supply of high-grade, processed graphite required for BEV batteries, with estimates suggesting that it accounts for approximately 85% of the global supply. 

Not only does it possess significant reserves of natural graphite, but it also holds a near-monopoly on the industrial processes required to transform the material from its mined (‘flake’) state to the highly pure spherical graphite needed to form the battery anode. 

There is an alternative to natural graphite, namely synthetic graphite, which is made using petroleum as a feedstock. 

Battery cell production

Battery cell makers prefer synthetic graphite because its more uniform structure is conducive to longer battery operational life. Estimates indicate that it has surpassed natural graphite in current BEV Li-ion battery production, and anodes are often composed of a mixture of natural and synthetic graphite. 

However, it is also more expensive than natural graphite and even less environmentally friendly than natural graphite in its sourcing and production methods. And, as it happens, China also dominates the global supply of synthetic graphite. The chart illustrates the projected growth in demand for battery-grade graphite in the BEV sector over this decade, assuming it remains the sole anode material.

Only in recent times, driven by anticipated growth in graphite demand from the battery vehicle sector, are projects capable of providing battery-grade graphite at scale being set up outside of China. 

Australia is a focus, but projects are being developed in Canada, Alaska, Africa, and Europe. Rising graphite demand is making these projects viable. Still, it is also driving up the price of battery-grade graphite, mainly when it is produced in territories where by-products of refining are more tightly controlled, such as in China. 

These issues, including cost, battery performance (is there a better alternative to graphite?), ESG concerns, and security of supply, have led to a long search for alternatives to graphite as an anode material. 

Battery performance

Perhaps the key driver is battery performance, though growing stress on the graphite industry and its dominance by China shouldn’t be ignored. 

While Li-ion batteries have, until recently at least, seen a decline in cost, the rate at which their performance can be improved using current technologies has slowed. 

At the same time, the industry has geared up massively to produce Li-ion batteries rather than any other type. Significant work has been conducted to modify cathode chemistries, aiming to enhance performance (including range and charging time) or eliminate the use of contentious materials, such as cobalt. However, there are limitations and trade-offs in what can be achieved. It’s a bit like buying a new house: You can have space, location, or affordability, but you can’t have all three at the same time. 

With conventional Li-ion batteries, there is a trade-off between energy storage, durability, and pack weight and size. It’s been known for a long time that using silicon as an anode material can significantly improve energy density – many more lithium atoms can be stored in silicon than in graphite. Up to 10% silicon is blended with graphite anodes today for this very purpose. The downside of pure silicon anodes, though, has always been the tendency of silicon to expand and contract during the charge and discharge cycle (by up to 300%), leading to premature cell failure. 

The problem to be solved, therefore, was to create a silicon-based material that would offer the energy storage benefits of silicon versus graphite while remaining stable over thousands of charge/discharge cycles. This now has been achieved, with companies such as US-based Sila Nanotechnologies (Sila) leading the way. Scaling up the production of such anode material has reached a point where Mercedes-Benz has specified a silicon-anode battery from Sila for its forthcoming all-electric G-Wagon. 

This appears to be a significant breakthrough, particularly in the early application at the heavier end of the electric vehicle spectrum, where the improved energy density helps mitigate the increasingly heavy and bulky batteries. 

Returning to the trade-off point earlier, this new anode material significantly reduces the amount of battery weight or size that needs to be sacrificed to achieve a higher-capacity battery. 

As for the cost comparison with graphite, this has yet to be fully revealed, but we can assume that, given the small scale of silicon anode production as the sector ramps up, it may initially be higher than that of a graphite cell. However, the raw material is abundant and inexpensive (silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust after oxygen), so the cost will largely depend on scaling up the industrialization process. 

Finally, a key point to note is that substituting silicon for graphite doesn’t mean that cell makers need to reconfigure their Li-ion gigafactories drastically. Given the vast investment going into the sector, that’s a good thing.

Graphite Is the Achilles’ Heel of EV Batteries — Until Now

As the most widely used mineral in lithium-ion battery production, graphite is essential. But overdependence on China and limited recycling infrastructure are putting battery supply chains at risk.

Klean Industries Has the Circular Solution for Graphite:

✅ Proprietary tech for transforming recovered carbon into battery-grade graphite
✅ Fully traceable, ESG-compliant supply via KleanLoop™
✅ Integration into pyrolysis and battery recycling platforms
✅ Support for automakers, gigafactories, and material suppliers

Partner with Klean Industries to secure your graphite supply chain with clean, compliant, and circular innovation » GO.