Depending on how many miles you drive, this isn’t true unfortunately, a new electric car on a “relatively” clean electric grid can pay off its manufacturing emissions in as little as 12 months.

“Using this model, Reuters found that, in the United States, a new 54-kilowatt-hour Tesla Model 3 must be driven 13,500 miles before it becomes cleaner than a Toyota Corolla achieving an average 33 mpg over its lifetime. However, if the same Tesla were driven in Norway, it emissions “break-even point” would come at just 8,400 miles, according to the analysis.”

Cobalt free batteries exist and some electric car manufacturers are already using them.

https://electrek.co/2022/04/22/tesla-using-cobalt-free-lfp-batteries-in-half-new-cars-produced/