Volvo to Rollout First Cars Made With Blockchain-Mapped Cobalt

Volvo Cars, a subsidiary of the Chinese automotive company, Geely, announced Friday, it has produced the first cars containing recycled cobalt mapped using a blockchain.

The carmaker, Volvo confirmed the development in an email to Reuters, with comments that it completed the first Blockchain, using recycled cobalt in China. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd reportedly makes the car batteries.

Among battery minerals, cobalt is tagged more challenging, given that about two-thirds of all supplies are from the Democratic Republic of Congo,  a region where governance challenges are prevalent.

Technically, the latest move by Volvo is coming in a time when carmakers are facing pressure from both the customers and investors who want proof that electric vehicles do not rely on conflict minerals or child labor.

The way out for every one of the automobile companies is to explore the usefulness of the immutable ledger technology, blockchain to improve accountability throughout supply chains.

The news today, on the other hand, is considered as a green light for the whole automobile industry. It will enable carmakers to embrace the potentials of Blockchain, which of course results in the mainstream adoption of the ever-growing ledger technology.

“It tracked cobalt from a Chinese recycling plant to Volvo Cars Zhejiang over a two-month period to June 27,” Volvo added, noting that its goal was to provide “full transparency and traceability.”

British blockchain specialist, Circulor reportedly developed the Blockchain powering the entire system. They utilized the technology from U.S. company Oracle and hopes to roll it out widely by 2020.

Volvo Cars per the report took it even a step further by joining another blockchain project to monitor cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo.