They are telling us what they plan to do - electric cars

From what used to be an excellent journal - Scientific American
In the first paragraph nonetheless:

Making the Entire U.S. Car Fleet Electric Could Cause Lithium Shortages
The transition to electric vehicles could lead to lithium shortages unless the United States and other countries overhaul their transportation systems and move away from private cars as the primary means of travel.

Emphasis mine - it all comes clear now.  This talk about living in cities.  Living fifteen minutes from your work, your play, your shopping, your friends.

I used to read Scientific American religiously.  Had a subscription for over 20 years.  Dropped it around 2000 when it started having fewer and fewer hard science articles and more and more "woke" opinion pieces - global warming, the need for recycling, etc...  Sadly, the same thing is happening with the British equivalent:  New Scientist.  Both were once great, now? Organs of the propaganda state.