From mine to pack: how the EV battery supply chain actually works

Every EV battery pack travels a long road before it meets a car. The industry divides it into four stages: upstream mining of raw materials; midstream refining and processing; downstream cell and pack manufacturing; and end-of-life collection and recycling.

Stage one: upstream mining is concentrated

Lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are the five critical minerals in the mix. According to IEA data, Australia, Chile and China produced roughly 85% of the world’s mined lithium in 2023. The Democratic Republic of Congo produced around two-thirds of mined cobalt. Indonesia produced more than half of mined nickel.

Stage two: midstream refining is more concentrated still

Mining is only half the map. China alone accounted for around 65% of refined lithium production in 2023, and also dominates cobalt refining and graphite processing — the materials stage where lithium, cobalt and nickel are turned into the precursors that cell factories consume. This is the bottleneck that matters most: diversifying mining without diversifying refining leaves the concentration problem unsolved.

Stage three: downstream cells and packs

Downstream, cell manufacturers produce lithium-ion cells in chemistries including LFP, NMC and emerging sodium-ion designs; pack integrators assemble cells into battery packs with thermal management and battery management systems. Pack assembly is the least geographically concentrated manufacturing stage — cathode and anode production, not final assembly, is where supply risk lives.

Stage four: the loop starts closing

In September 2026, General Motors and Cirba Solutions reached a closed-loop milestone: battery material recycler Cirba now supplies GM with 100% recycled nickel, cobalt and manganese cathode material. The loop — old packs back into new packs — is the supply chain’s fourth stage growing into a real industry, though recycling volumes remain small beside new-mineral demand.

The map, in one line: a handful of countries dig the minerals, China processes most of them, and everyone else buys cells from the same concentrated pool. Every automaker supply-chain strategy — from Ford’s CATL-licensed LFP plant in Michigan to sodium-ion programs that dodge lithium entirely — is an attempt to redraw this map.