One next generation battery in prototype phase (Influit Energy) if successful drops the cost and dependence on rate material. Point is early purchases of EV encourage development of next generation batteries with lower resource and production issues.

Already batteries with 10000000 mile life are being sold. They are limited in range but offer reuse in multiple cars or extent the life of EV so production pollution is far less then the 3 or 4 gas cars it replaces due to a very long life.

The EV story is evolving and much better then the snapshot view depicted in this article