The Cost of Cleaner Cars: The Congo Conundrum and Cobalt Sourcing for Electric Vehicle Manufacturers

This paper analyzes the role that electric vehicle manufacturers play in human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through their sourcing of cobalt. Cobalt is essential to the batteries used in electric vehicles. However, the mining of cobalt is an industry riddled with human rights abuses. Dealing in cobalt places electric vehicle manufacturers in a precarious position as they are linked to these human rights abuses. The paper then analyzes how three electric vehicle manufacturers: Tesla, BMW, and Mercedes Benz deal with the human rights abuses within their supply chain. While each company has attempted to act in light of these findings, significant issues remain. Two key recommendations are offered to electric vehicle manufacturers attempting to better navigate the cobalt supply chain: invest in innovation to limit cobalt dependence and expand corporate governance over human rights abuses to include local monitoring and intervention efforts. While the focus is on electric vehicle manufacturers, the recommendations to them can be applied to other large multinational enterprises that encounter the same human rights issues while accessing cobalt within the global supply chain.