Electric/hybrid cars for low mileage drivers

[Finishline42]

17. A couple of points

It doesn't make sense to me that the 5 kg of cobalt (Tesla Model 3) would have that much of an impact on life cycle air emissions?

From Google
The amount of cobalt in a Tesla battery varies by model and year, but Tesla has been reducing its cobalt use and aims to eliminate it completely:
Model S: The first Model S batteries contained about 11 kilograms of cobalt per vehicle.
Model 3: The Model 3 consumes about 4.5 kilograms of cobalt per vehicle.
Cobalt-free batteries: In April 2022, Tesla reported that about half of its new vehicles used cobalt-free iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries. Tesla's goal is to have cobalt-free batteries in all models.
Tesla has been reducing its cobalt use for years. The company has used a nickel-rich nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode chemistry for cars outside of China, which has a low cobalt content of about 5%. Tesla has also eliminated third-party smelters to shorten its supply chain.
Cobalt is a key component in lithium-ion batteries, which are used in EVs. Cobalt allows the cathodes in the batteries to focus power in a confined space.

What if an owner of a Tesla installed solar panels that produced the electricity required to keep the car charged? How does that change the data?

It also doesn't make sense to me that a one time production of less than 5 kg cobalt that lasts at least 150,000 miles (the warranty period for a Tesla) would have a greater impact on air pollution than the drilling, pumping, refining, transporting and burning gasoline for 150,000 miles.

BTW, I drove a user of a plug-in Volvo and he told me he got 1200 miles on a tank of gas. Of course that tells me that most of his daily driving is within the 30 mile range of his batteries.