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I am just curious how these companies are going to acquire batteries for the recycling. Please correct me if I am wrong, but Tesla sold around two million cars

by lnsru 4y ago

I am just curious how these companies are going to acquire batteries for the recycling. Please correct me if I am wrong, but Tesla sold around two million cars in total. Majority of them in the last couple or so years. That means, these cars will be ready for recycling in 10 or more years (battery 5 years in a car and further as stationary batteries). Electric cars from other manufacturers have sick waiting times. Maybe it’s all a bit too early? Venture capitalists are not going to wait for decades to make profit.

spathi_fwiffo 4y ago
There are tons of older hybrids out there that also use very large batteries. Prius has been around for 20+ years, i believe. If the technology works well (i guess the ones not specifically targetted at Tesla batteries) it should work for any lithium battery -- laptop/etc/Solar array batteries.
vardump 4y ago
Battery production scrap / rejects is one additional source of material.
gcheong 4y ago
“ But this new cohort of recyclers doesn’t have to wait for electric vehicles to hit critical mass. They’ve got plenty to hone their techniques on with existing consumer electronics waste, plus the scrap from new battery manufacturing. ” Sounds like they’re starting now because they need time to get things efficient enough for the day when EV recycling starts to be needed en mass?
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  I’m assuming they’ll be put in fixed applications where weight and max efficiency/charge aren’t critical, unless they’re already damaged. Pumped storage is economically viable at 70-80% efficient at each cycle after a big capital investment. It won’t be EV battery recycling but just battery recycling.
outworlder 4y ago
If they start to run short (unlikely) there are plenty of other applications that use similar/identical cells.
dangrossman 4y ago
Redwood is recycling 60 tons of battery material a day already. The source is primarily the scrap from making batteries. As battery production is ramping up as fast as raw materials can be acquired all around the world, there will be a continual supply of scrap even before we have to worry about recycling the batteries from cars already on the road.
SECProto 4y ago
Ten years ago Tesla was making about 10,000 cars per year. Five years ago, it was about 100,000. This past year, it's around 1,000,000. The right time to be working on scaling up recycling processes is ±now.
otabdeveloper4 4y ago
There's orders of magnitude more electric scooters and other personal mobility devices compared to electric cars.

by lnsru 4y ago

spathi_fwiffo 4y ago

There are tons of older hybrids out there that also use very large batteries. Prius has been around for 20+ years, i believe. If the technology works well (i guess the ones not specifically targetted at Tesla batteries) it should work for any lithium battery -- laptop/etc/Solar array batteries.

vardump 4y ago

Battery production scrap / rejects is one additional source of material.

gcheong 4y ago

“ But this new cohort of recyclers doesn’t have to wait for electric vehicles to hit critical mass. They’ve got plenty to hone their techniques on with existing consumer electronics waste, plus the scrap from new battery manufacturing. ” Sounds like they’re starting now because they need time to get things efficient enough for the day when EV recycling starts to be needed en mass?

Scoundreller 4y ago
I’m assuming they’ll be put in fixed applications where weight and max efficiency/charge aren’t critical, unless they’re already damaged. Pumped storage is economically viable at 70-80% efficient at each cycle after a big capital investment. It won’t be EV battery recycling but just battery recycling.

outworlder 4y ago

If they start to run short (unlikely) there are plenty of other applications that use similar/identical cells.

dangrossman 4y ago

Redwood is recycling 60 tons of battery material a day already. The source is primarily the scrap from making batteries. As battery production is ramping up as fast as raw materials can be acquired all around the world, there will be a continual supply of scrap even before we have to worry about recycling the batteries from cars already on the road.

SECProto 4y ago

Ten years ago Tesla was making about 10,000 cars per year. Five years ago, it was about 100,000. This past year, it's around 1,000,000. The right time to be working on scaling up recycling processes is ±now.

otabdeveloper4 4y ago

There's orders of magnitude more electric scooters and other personal mobility devices compared to electric cars.