> Lithium is a finite resource which needs to be extracted
Yes, but once concentrated it is extremely recyclable. It doesn't flow, or corrode, or leave the battery. So when the cell's life is over the lithium is still there, "extractable" with vastly higher efficiencies than seen by raw production.
> Surely there’s not enough lithium for everything to be powered by battery.
There is for everything we'd want to put a battery in today. It's not an uncommon element at all, it's just a hard one to concentrate because (owing to the fact that it's very soluble) geology has done a poor job of concentrating it for us. There is more lithium in the earth's crust than there is lead or tungsten or tin, yet those metals are minable from "veins" where with lithium we have to get it out of the oceans (or out of salt deposits that are ancient dried oceans).
Yes, but once concentrated it is extremely recyclable. It doesn't flow, or corrode, or leave the battery. So when the cell's life is over the lithium is still there, "extractable" with vastly higher efficiencies than seen by raw production.
> Surely there’s not enough lithium for everything to be powered by battery.
There is for everything we'd want to put a battery in today. It's not an uncommon element at all, it's just a hard one to concentrate because (owing to the fact that it's very soluble) geology has done a poor job of concentrating it for us. There is more lithium in the earth's crust than there is lead or tungsten or tin, yet those metals are minable from "veins" where with lithium we have to get it out of the oceans (or out of salt deposits that are ancient dried oceans).