February 2025. The Democratic Republic of Congo flipped a switch. And Europe's entire electric vehicle industry just realized they're dead.
Here's what nobody saw coming. The DRC controls 70% of the world's cobalt production. They hold 51% of all known reserves; 24 trillion dollars worth of minerals sitting in the ground. And in February 2025, they banned all cobalt exports. Just stopped them completely. No warning. No negotiation. Just a four month freeze that turned into eight months. And when they finally reopened exports in October, they slapped on quotas so tight that Europe's EV manufacturers are now facing assembly line shutdowns. Volkswagen, BMW, Stellantis; they're all scrambling because without cobalt, their batteries don't work. And without batteries, their electric vehicle revolution is over. So let me show you exactly how the DRC just weaponized the one mineral that powers the entire green energy transition, why Europe is completely helpless, and how China saw this coming years ago while the West slept.
Here's what most people don't understand about cobalt. Every single lithium ion battery needs it. Your phone has 5 to 20 grams. Your laptop has more. But an electric vehicle? Anywhere from 4 to 30 kilograms per car depending on the battery type. And there's no easy substitute. You can reduce cobalt content, sure. But you can't eliminate it completely without the battery structure breaking down. Below 5%, the whole thing stops working. That's not a preference; that's chemistry.