Do all EV batteries use cobalt and rare-earth materials?

Última modificación: ago 06, 2026

Cobalt, critical minerals and rare-earth elements are often grouped together in EV discussions, but they are different material categories used in different components—and neither cobalt nor rare-earth magnets are required by every battery-electric vehicle design.

Claim

All EV batteries use cobalt and rare-earth materials.

Verdict

Incorrect. NMC and NCA battery cathodes contain cobalt, while LFP cathodes contain neither cobalt nor nickel. Cobalt is not a rare-earth element. Rare-earth materials are more commonly associated with permanent magnets in some traction motors, and induction or electrically excited motors can avoid those magnets.

Scope

This review covers the high-voltage traction batteries and propulsion motors of current passenger battery-electric vehicles. It distinguishes the battery cell's active materials from the motor, power electronics, pack enclosure and other vehicle components.

It does not certify that an entire vehicle contains zero cobalt or zero rare-earth material. Small motors, speakers, sensors, electronics, alloys and supplier-specific additives may have different material content. Chemistry and motor design can also vary by model year, market and variant.

Last reviewed: 6 August 2026. Review trigger: major changes in production battery chemistries, traction-motor designs, material disclosure rules or authoritative mineral-intensity data.

Three terms that should not be combined

“Battery material,” “critical mineral” and “rare-earth element” do not mean the same thing.

The US Geological Survey defines rare earths as a group of 17 elements: scandium, yttrium and the lanthanides US Geological Survey: Rare Earths Statistics and Information. Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are prominent examples in high-performance permanent magnets.

Cobalt is a separate chemical element. Lithium, nickel, manganese, iron, phosphorus, aluminium, copper and graphite are not rare-earth elements either. Some may be classified as critical minerals under a country's current supply-risk rules, but “critical” describes economic and supply importance rather than a position in the periodic table. The USGS explicitly distinguishes rare earths from the wider critical-minerals category US Geological Survey: About the 2025 List of Critical Minerals.

The International Energy Agency uses the same component boundary when describing EV material demand: lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are important battery materials, while rare-earth elements are associated with permanent magnets used in some EV motors International Energy Agency: Critical Minerals.

This distinction matters because saying that an EV uses rare-earth magnets does not show that its battery cathode contains rare earths. Conversely, identifying cobalt in the battery says nothing about which motor type the vehicle uses.

Which batteries contain cobalt

The cathode chemistry is the first place to look. EV Battery Cell Chemistry explains the main families and their trade-offs.

NMC, also called NCM, means lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide. Cobalt is part of the named cathode composition, but the proportion varies. Labels such as NMC 111, 622 and 811 describe different approximate ratios of nickel, manganese and cobalt. A statement about one NMC formulation should not be applied to all NMC batteries.

NCA means lithium nickel cobalt aluminium oxide. Cobalt is again part of the cathode family, alongside nickel and aluminium. NMC Battery and NCA Battery define these labels in more detail.

The concern behind the claim is therefore real for many EVs. The US Department of Energy identifies cobalt as a material with significant supply-chain risk and describes active work to reduce or eliminate it from lithium-ion cathodes US Department of Energy: Reducing Reliance on Cobalt for Lithium-Ion Batteries. Lower cobalt content does not automatically make a cell superior: energy density, durability, safety, charging, temperature performance, cost and the sourcing of every other material still matter.

The exact cobalt quantity cannot be inferred from battery capacity alone. It depends on the cathode formulation, cell design, amount of active material and pack size. Manufacturers also do not always disclose the precise recipe for every variant.

Cobalt-free EV batteries already exist

LFP means lithium iron phosphate. Its cathode uses lithium, iron and phosphate rather than nickel and cobalt. The US Department of Energy's Critical Materials Assessment lists NMC, NCA and LFP as common EV battery families and identifies the different cathode materials used by each US Department of Energy: 2023 Critical Materials Assessment.

LFP is not an experimental exception. BYD states that its production Blade Battery uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry and is free of nickel and cobalt BYD: Blade Battery Technology. Other manufacturers also use LFP in production passenger EVs, although availability can differ by market, battery size and model year.

Avoiding cobalt changes the trade-offs rather than removing material impacts. LFP generally offers strong thermal stability and cycle-life potential, while its cell-level energy density is normally lower than that of the best nickel-rich chemistries. Cold-weather behaviour, pack design, charging limits, iron, phosphate, lithium, graphite, copper and aluminium remain relevant. LFP Battery covers those boundaries.

Other cobalt-free cathodes and battery systems are being developed or commercialized, but a chemistry should be identified from the exact production specification rather than a future announcement. “Lithium-ion” alone does not reveal whether cobalt is present.

Where rare-earth materials enter the EV

Rare-earth use in an EV is more often a motor question than a traction-battery question.

Many permanent-magnet synchronous motors use neodymium-iron-boron magnets. The IEA identifies neodymium and praseodymium as principal magnet materials, with dysprosium or terbium sometimes added to improve high-temperature performance International Energy Agency: Rare Earth Elements. Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors explains why these motors are attractive: they can combine high torque density with high efficiency over a useful operating range.

The magnet is mounted in or on the motor's rotor. It does not store the vehicle's driving energy and is not part of the battery cathode. A vehicle can therefore pair a cobalt-containing NMC battery with a rare-earth-free motor, or a cobalt-free LFP battery with a rare-earth permanent-magnet motor.

Vehicles with two or more motors can mix technologies between axles. One motor may use permanent magnets while another uses induction. A statement about “the motor” can therefore be incomplete even for one exact variant.

Rare-earth elements can also appear elsewhere in a vehicle, including small electric motors, speakers and electronic components. A manufacturer statement that the traction motor avoids rare earths should not be expanded into a claim that the complete car contains none.

Not every EV motor requires rare-earth magnets

The rotor field can be created without a rare-earth permanent magnet.

An induction motor, also called an asynchronous motor, induces electrical current in a conductive rotor cage. It has no rotor magnets. Induction Motors in EVs explains the resulting benefits and losses, including rotor heat and the current needed to establish the magnetic field.

An electrically excited synchronous motor uses powered rotor windings instead of permanent magnets. Its field can be adjusted while driving, but the excitation system adds copper loss, hardware and control requirements. Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors covers this architecture.

BMW provides a current production example. The company says its fifth-generation eDrive uses current-excited synchronous motors whose operating principle allows rare-earth materials for permanent magnets to be omitted; it lists the i4, i5, i7 and iX among the battery-electric applications BMW Group: Fifth-generation eDrive and rare-earth-free motors.

The US Department of Energy also treats induction machines, reduced-rare-earth motors and non-permanent-magnet designs as distinct development paths US Department of Energy: Electric Motors Research and Development. These alternatives show that rare-earth magnets are a design choice, not a physical requirement for electric propulsion.

Avoiding rare-earth magnets is not a free improvement. Engineers trade magnet sourcing and fixed rotor flux against motor size, copper use, rotor losses, cooling, inverter demand, excitation hardware, efficiency across the driving map and manufacturing cost. The relevant comparison is the complete drive system.

How to check an exact EV

Material claims should be tied to the exact variant and component:

  • Identify the battery chemistry: NMC/NCM, NCA, LFP, LMFP or another named family.
  • Check whether the chemistry applies to the relevant market, model year and battery size.
  • Do not infer the cathode recipe from range, charging power or pack capacity.
  • Identify the motor on each driven axle: permanent-magnet, induction, electrically excited or reluctance-based.
  • Treat “cobalt-free” as a cathode claim unless the manufacturer defines a wider boundary.
  • Treat “rare-earth-free motor” as a traction-motor claim unless the complete vehicle has been assessed.
  • Separate responsible sourcing, recycled content and supply concentration from the question of whether an element is present.

If a manufacturer does not disclose chemistry or motor topology, record it as unknown. Marketing terms such as “Blade,” “long range” or “high efficiency” cannot replace a material specification.

Bottom line

All EV batteries do not use cobalt. NMC and NCA cathodes do, in varying proportions, while LFP batteries provide a widely used cobalt-free alternative.

Cobalt is not a rare-earth element. Rare-earth materials such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are principally relevant to permanent magnets in some traction motors. Induction and electrically excited motors demonstrate that an EV can propel itself without rare-earth rotor magnets.

The accurate question is not whether “EVs use rare materials,” but which material is used in which component of the exact vehicle—and what technical, environmental and supply-chain trade-offs follow from that choice.

For deeper explanations, see EV Battery Cell Chemistry and Electric Motors and Drive Units. This article is part of EV Claims, Checked, where recurring EV claims are checked against the strongest available evidence.

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