Almost 1.5 million electric vehicle batteries will reach end-of-life by 2030, a report by a US environmental organisation warns.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) report states almost half of those EOL batteries will be lithium-based, with the remainder nickel metal hydride.
The CEC ‘Environmentally Sound Management of End-of-Life Batteries from Electric-Drive Vehicles in North America’ report goes on to highlight best practices for recycling materials such as nickel, cobalt and steel used in EV batteries.
The study was produced with Environment Canada, Mexico’s Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat) and Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático (INECC), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“The recycling/processing infrastructure for electric vehicle batteries is in its infancy, but large players are already in the market and are assessing options for future expansion,” says the report.
But questions have been raised about the future economic reality of second-life batteries as the cost of new ones declines, and the value of metals recovered from them against the cost of extracting them.
For our full report about second-life batteries, see our report and analysis on page 91 of the Winter issue of BEST magazine, out now online and in print.
