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EU Bets on Blockchain for Cleaner EV Production

Blockchain seems to be all the hype today. Now even the European Union (EU) will fund one initiative meant to help carmakers. Electric vehicles might soon be easier to be deemed as clean from the get-go.
EU funded blockchain for cleaner EVs 6 photos
Photo: Mika Baumaister on Unsplash
EU blockchain for cleaner EVsEU blockchain for cleaner EVsEU blockchain for cleaner EVsEU blockchain for cleaner EVsEU blockchain for cleaner EVs
A car company that is set on making a lot of EVs now or in the near future needs some serious chain supply management. This is particularly true for those brands that want to prove to their customers that their vehicles are not a burden on the environment elsewhere in the world.

Rare earths are what triggered this. These expensive raw materials are used for magnets in electric motors, and they are needed by every automaker that builds EVs. German carmakers have started using less, but they still must order large quantities. After reports that EVs are not really green cars from the start, companies and lawmakers took notice. A change had to be done, since some shady companies delivered rare earths with certificates bought online.

To keep everyone happy, the EU set up a scheme for funding an initiative that will track, trace, and certify rare earths. After a couple of months, the Circular System for Assessing Rare Earth Sustainability or CSyARES appeared as a proposal. The idea was liked by the eurocrats and by carmakers, which made everyone happy. The problem is this will take at least three years to set up properly. For a blockchain to work for multiple stakeholders at a time there are important criteria to meet.

However, CSyARES has been approved by key players in the space and now a company called Circularise has started working on it. Porsche has already worked with them on plastic tracing. They hope to ship everything faster because processing rare earth ore is a complex operation, involving solvents and toxic waste that needs to be disposed of carefully.

This blockchain system might make its way soon to the U.S. because, as the EU, America is mostly dependent on Chinese imports.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows abstract pictures of what a blockchain could look like.

About the author: Florin Amariei
Florin Amariei profile photo

Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one.
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