4 ms·

Yeahbut. The number of trucks on the road is minuscule compared to passenger cars, they just put on a lot more miles. A kilogram of lithium used in a truck batt

Yeahbut. The number of trucks on the road is minuscule compared to passenger cars, they just put on a lot more miles. A kilogram of lithium used in a truck battery will accomplish more than a kilogram of lithium used in a car battery. (Which also suggests the industry may be less cost-sensitive and able to tolerate price increases if they ever happen, although the trajectory is solidly downward.) Furthermore, secondary use of EV packs (when they're down to maybe 60% of nameplate capacity, they're replaced and the old ones are sold into stationary applications) means that there'll be _decreasing_ demand for purpose-built stationary batteries. Five years ago, if you wanted to put together a massive lithium backup system, you had to buy new batteries. Today, you can head over to batteryhookup and get BMW, BYD, Mercedes, and other ex-EV batteries for pennies on the dollar, in modules with the connectors on 'em and everything. The industry is actively pursuing this, by the way. Five years from now, it'll either be much easier and more official, or wrapped up in-house and out of third-party reach. But either way, the path from EV to stationary use is developing, and the packs which already did some service on the road, will fill much of the need for stationary batteries, displacing that market's appetite for virgin batteries. As the secondary market floods with ex-EV packs, at some point it becomes economical to "mine" the really-dead ones for their lithium, and the loop closes. Recycling plants aren't the same as virgin-lithium plants, but we'll see those developing in due time.

jabl 6y ago
Yeah, people are harping about how much minerals we need to dig up for all those batteries. Yes, that's true, and we should certainly seek to mine those minerals with minimum environmental damage, and seek out new battery chemistries not needing critical materials (e.g. Tesla has announced their next gen batteries will be cobalt-free). But as you say, batteries can be recycled into new batteries. At some point we'll approach some saturation point, where most of the need for those minerals can be satisfied by recycling old batteries. As opposed to fossil fuels which just go up the tailpipe, and thus need new resources to be extracted constantly.

jabl 6y ago

Yeah, people are harping about how much minerals we need to dig up for all those batteries. Yes, that's true, and we should certainly seek to mine those minerals with minimum environmental damage, and seek out new battery chemistries not needing critical materials (e.g. Tesla has announced their next gen batteries will be cobalt-free). But as you say, batteries can be recycled into new batteries. At some point we'll approach some saturation point, where most of the need for those minerals can be satisfied by recycling old batteries. As opposed to fossil fuels which just go up the tailpipe, and thus need new resources to be extracted constantly.