Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Copper and Electric and hybrid vehicles

A battery electric car was estimated to use about 83 kg of copper against about 23 kg in a petrol or diesel car (ICA estimate, 2017), in motor windings, battery connections, high-voltage wiring and charging, so each switch to a battery car adds about 60 kg of copper demand.

Copper (commodity) and Electric and hybrid vehicles (energy): 3 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Motors, battery and wiring

Physical flow · Strong · Copper → Electric and hybrid vehicles

An electric drivetrain carries large currents from the battery through busbars, inverter and motor windings, and the battery cells themselves use copper foil, so the vehicle needs much more copper than a combustion car.

  • about 83 kg copper in a battery electric car (2017 estimate)
  • about 23 kg copper in a combustion engine car (2017 estimate)
  • about 40 and 60 kg copper in a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid (2017 estimate)

Copper content rises with the size of the battery and motor, so electric buses use far more, about 224 to 369 kg depending on battery size. Chargers add copper outside the vehicle, about 0.7 kg for a standard unit and up to 8 kg for a fast charger. These are 2017 estimates and actual content varies by model, but the gap with combustion cars is large.

Sources: International Copper Association

2. EV sales lift copper demand

Transition · Rising · EV sales → copper demand

Every electric car sold in place of a combustion car adds tens of kilograms of copper demand, so the EV share of new car sales has become a copper demand indicator.

  • over 20 million electric cars sold worldwide in 2025
  • about 25% share of new cars sold that were electric, 2025
  • 23 million electric car sales expected in 2026, about 28% of the total

China dominates, with nearly 55% of its car sales electric in 2025. If all of the 20 million electric cars sold in 2025 were battery cars, the extra copper over combustion cars would be about 1.2 Mt; the true figure is lower because plug-in hybrids use less. The IEA notes an electric car needs about six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car.

Sources: International Copper Association; IEA; IEA

3. Price link: motors and wiring

Cost and price · Weak · Both ways

Copper is a small share of an electric car's price, and carmakers buy it through annual supply contracts, so copper moves do not pass into vehicle prices.

  • -0.17 monthly change correlation
  • -0.28 12-month change correlation
  • 0.14 fitted elasticity

The negative correlations point to other drivers, such as battery costs and price competition, dominating vehicle prices rather than any causal link from copper. The relationship to watch runs from EV volumes to copper demand, not from copper prices to car prices.

Sources: Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)

For investors

Key learnings

  1. Each battery electric car needs about 60 kg more copper than a combustion car (2017 estimates), so EV adoption is a durable source of copper demand growth.
  2. EV sales passed 20 million in 2025, a quarter of new cars, and the IEA expects 23 million in 2026, so volumes rather than prices are the signal to follow.
  3. Vehicle prices show no positive link to copper, with correlations of -0.17 monthly and -0.28 yearly, so copper cost swings are absorbed in the supply chain rather than passed to car buyers.

What to track

  • Global and China electric car sales and share: Higher shares mean more copper per new car sold (Monthly · CAAM, IEA Global EV Outlook)
  • Average battery size per vehicle: Bigger packs and motors raise copper per vehicle (Annual · IEA, BNEF)
  • Charger roll-out, especially fast chargers: Adds copper outside the vehicle, up to 8 kg per fast charger (Quarterly · national charging data)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. Electrifying transport shifts import exposure from oil towards metals such as copper, so copper supply security becomes part of transport policy.
  2. Electric buses use about 224 to 369 kg of copper each, so bus electrification programmes are a concentrated copper demand.
  3. India's electric two- and three-wheeler sales grew more than 30% year on year in early 2026, according to the IEA, a large and growing copper user even though each vehicle needs little metal.

What to track

  • Electric vehicle registrations by segment: Signals copper demand from transport electrification (Monthly · VAHAN dashboard)
  • Copper concentrate and cathode imports: Shows how far new demand depends on imports (Monthly · Ministry of Commerce trade data)

India

The IEA reported that India's electric two- and three-wheeler sales grew more than 30% year on year in early 2026; transport took about 9% of India's cable demand (ICA India, 2025), a share set to rise as buses and cars electrify.

Sources

  1. The electric vehicle market and copper demand (fact sheet, IDTechEx for ICA), International Copper Association (2017)
  2. Global EV Outlook 2026: Executive summary, IEA (2026)
  3. The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions (revised March 2022), IEA (2022)
  4. Price correlation, Material Insights, Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)
  5. Copper's Key Role in Cables, International Copper Association India (2025)