What happens if electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies like wind turbines and solar panels suddenly had to be produced entirely without resources from mining? eNimon, the first electric car ever made without metals or minerals answers that question
More than 90 percent of an average electric car consists of resources derived from mining. eNimon, or the Nomine car, is stripped from all of these materials. It is completely transparent, lacks all characteristics that make a car a car, and it can’t move an inch. Simply put, it shows a future without access to mined metals and minerals.
“Without mining, there are no EVs, no wind turbines, no solar panels,” says Mats Eriksson, President at Business Area Mining at Sandvik. “Sustainable mining is the backbone of the green transition and fundamental to achieving global sustainability goals.”
The world is facing a critical challenge in its push toward sustainability: current mining output cannot meet the rapidly rising demand for the minerals essential for clean energy technologies. Electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines and solar panels all depend on critical materials like lithium, copper and nickel, yet the supply of these resources is falling dangerously behind demand.
For example:
- An EV requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional vehicle.[1]
- An onshore wind plant needs nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant.[2]
- Meeting net-zero goals by 2050 would require up to five times more production of lithium, nickel and cobalt compared to today’s levels.[3]
Without scaling up sustainable mining practices material shortages are likely threatening not only climate targets but also global electrification and decarbonisation efforts.
Sandvik is addressing this urgent issue by spotlighting the essential role of sustainable mining in creating the technologies that define modern life and drive the electrification of the world. eNimon ‘The nomine car’ installation, now on display at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, offers a thought-provoking visualisation of what happens if these critical materials are no longer available.
“eNimon symbolises what’s at stake if the world fails to recognise and expand mining’s essential contributions to sustainabl development. This installation challenges perceptions of mining—not as a dirty, outdated industry, but as a high-tech, innovative and essential enabler of the green technologies shaping our future” Mats Eriksson concludes.
More information about eNimon and how Sandvik is driving innovation in mining
- The role of critical minerals in clean energy transitions, International Energy Agency
- Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024, International Energy Agency
- Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024, International Energy Agency
