People may be concerned to buy products from home but why isn’t anyone talking about the hundreds of years it takes s lithium battery to decompose? I thought people bought these cars to protect the environment? There can’t be anything green about that!
@Lexis, thanks for raising this important point. Yes, end of life management is an important factor (also thinking of solar panels and how they might be disposed at end of life). I think there needs to be more investment on recycling and end of life management of batteries, the same extent governments prioritize domestic mining.
We did study this partly in a related project and found people care about recycling their EV batteries but in reality this activity is lagging behind.
Perhaps an idea for a future survey, but I wonder whether people assume "outside the US" is a proxy for China and you're capturing some form of anti-China sentiment. Even though Chile and Australia are major sources of lithium, I'm not sure most people know that.
It adds another treatment arm, but it would be neat to see options for Produced in US, Produced in Australia, Produced in China, or Produced Outside the US
This is a great idea for my next project. It would be great to add specific countries to the “foreign” option and see if preferences vary when we present China versus others. Really great idea— thanks!
People may be concerned to buy products from home but why isn’t anyone talking about the hundreds of years it takes s lithium battery to decompose? I thought people bought these cars to protect the environment? There can’t be anything green about that!
@Lexis, thanks for raising this important point. Yes, end of life management is an important factor (also thinking of solar panels and how they might be disposed at end of life). I think there needs to be more investment on recycling and end of life management of batteries, the same extent governments prioritize domestic mining.
We did study this partly in a related project and found people care about recycling their EV batteries but in reality this activity is lagging behind.
And we call them green,… to save the planet from the natural substance gasoline?
Perhaps the term green is often used to help market them?
If EVs are charged with electricity from fossil based power plants (which most of the case they are), there is no green component.
Where do we recycle them? The moon? Mars? They don’t break down like milk cartons do
Perhaps an idea for a future survey, but I wonder whether people assume "outside the US" is a proxy for China and you're capturing some form of anti-China sentiment. Even though Chile and Australia are major sources of lithium, I'm not sure most people know that.
It adds another treatment arm, but it would be neat to see options for Produced in US, Produced in Australia, Produced in China, or Produced Outside the US
This is a great idea for my next project. It would be great to add specific countries to the “foreign” option and see if preferences vary when we present China versus others. Really great idea— thanks!
Excellent analysis. I read this article last year was enlightening. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/10/extraction-mineral-mining-thea-riofrancos-book-review/684214/. (message me if paywalled)..
I have read some of Thea’s work and I plan to read this. Thanks for the recommendation.