CALIPATRIA, California: Automakers, investors and even oilfield giant Schlumberger NV are beginning to embrace environmentally friendly technologies to produce lithium that could help meet 25 per cent or more of global demand for the electric vehicle battery metal by the end of the decade. Stellantis, Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and others have invested millions of dollars or signed supply agreements with so-called direct lithium extraction (DLE) start-ups in recent months in an attempt to propel the technology to commercial production, expected within the next year or two.