A vast majority of the metal is used in catalytic converters in car exhausts, where it helps turn toxic pollutants into less-harmful carbon dioxide and water vapor.
According to a Bloomberg report, in Europe, consumers are buying fewer diesel cars, which mostly depend on platinum, and choosing gasoline-powered vehicles, which use palladium, following revelations that makers of diesel cars cheated on emissions tests and as concerns about diesel pollution intensified.
Mined primarily in Russia and South Africa, palladium is extracted as a byproduct from mining of other metals like platinum or nickel.