Volvo cars owned by China’s company Geely has produced the first car containing recycled cobalt which was traced using blockchain technology. Tracing supply of cobalt has been an issue for electrical car companies. The chemical element is obtained from Congo, a central African country. As the demand for cobalt increased by electrical car companies, it came in news that miners in Congo are using child labor to dig out the chemical. It put many car companies under pressure to use cobalt. Volvo turned to blockchain technology to find the solution, and today, they have successfully built a car using “child-labor” free cobalt.
Volvo’s executives said that they tracked cobalt from a Chinese recycling plant to Volvo Cars Zhejiang over a two-month period using blockchain technology. They also claimed that technology provided them with “full transparency and traceability.”
Volvo has joined hands with companies like Ford, IBM, South Korean LG Chem, and China’s Huayou Cobalt in a blockchain-related project which is being overseen by RCS Global.RCS Global acknowledged Volvo’s efforts to achieve “quantifiable and continuous” improvement of supply chains.
Around two-third of cobalt’s supply comes from Congo, and it is a massive challenge for companies to get it because of the government situation in the country. Volvo has become the first company to utilize recycled cobalt to use it in their electric cars. Blockchain technology has been beneficial for businesses like transportation, healthcare, logistics, and many others.
