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EVs (and their resulting large battery packs) haven't been available at scale long enough, but there are already established businesses for recycling standard c
by mgiampapa 2y ago
EVs (and their resulting large battery packs) haven't been available at scale long enough, but there are already established businesses for recycling standard car batteries and it's why you pay a separate "core" deposit in the US to ensure they go back into the system.
People are starting these businesses already, it's yet another logistics problem to solve. Right now there is more money in pulling apart the packs the using the cells as salvage than there is recycling, but as more and more EVs reach end of life you can bet it will be a sizable market.
- aidenn0 2y agoEveryone compares Li-ion recycling to starter battery recycling, but starter battery recycling is extracting a single element that makes up almost all of the mass of the battery. There are many different cathode chemistries all in use for lithium ion cells, so the logistics problem is significantly more complicated. Presumably a specific chemistry will end up winning out for chars, but, IMO, most of the cars on the road now will never have their cells recycled.
- adgjlsfhk1 2y agobasically all batteries now are 1 of 2 types, and the differences within those types largely relate to manufacturing methods and trace elements that probably aren't worth recycling anyway.