Today, Amnesty International released a report, which warns that electric auto makers may be unknowingly using batteries that are indirect results of child labor. The batteries contain cobalt, a substance that is famously mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country which supplies 50% of the world’s supply. The DRC also is known for its child labor practices in many of its informal cobalt mines. Automakers that may be involved include GM, Volkswagen, Tesla, Fiat Chrysler, Daimler, and Renault-Nissan, who Amnesty blamed for failing to keep track of where its cobalt is coming from. Many of the automakers have zero tolerance policies when it comes to child labor, and are now looking into whether their batteries contain cobalt from the DRC.
See "Child labor taints production of batteries for electric carmakers, Amnesty says", Lin Taylor, Reuters, September 30, 2016