What do you do with electric vehicle batteries atthe THE end of their life?

You send them to landfill ….. NO !

An electric vehicle battery is no longer viable for operational use once the electric vehicle can only recharge the battery to around 70% to 80% of its capacity.

With this in mind it has been predicted that by 2040 more than half of the registered new vehicles will be electric. This poses a serious challenge as electric vehicle batteries will need to be replaced at least every 8 years.

By 2025 the stockpile of electric vehicle batteries is expected to exceed 3.4 million.

Reduced battery performance, what are the noticeable signs?

​A declining performance of an electric vehicle battery is noticeable with a reduction in miles per charge and more frequent plug ins.

What are the options once you can only recharge the battery to 70% to 80% of its capacity?

A battery in an electric vehicle which uses lithium based chemistry will lose capacity for every full charge and discharge it undergoes, we call this process a “Cycle” The more cycles a battery does the more it will degrade and lose capacity.

• Option 1 You can recycle as much from the electric vehicle battery as possible.
• Option 2 Salvage any ‘good’ battery cells from the pack and re-package for use in other applications.

Some of the good battery cells within the battery pack can be repackaged and then used as a stationary home energy storage system. Households with solar panels can then store energy collected from the panels allowing the cheaper energy to be used later when the cost may be higher to use electricity straight from the grid.

What do EU Regulations say?

An electric vehicle battery is classified as an industrial battery. Under EU law it is illegal for electric vehicle batteries to be incinerated or sent to landfill. EU regulations require that all battery manufacturers, ( for example AESC in Sunderland) must finance the collecting, treating and recycling all collected electric vehicle batteries.

Where do you recycle an electric vehicle battery?

In Europe a company called Umicore has built an industrial pilot plant in Antwerp to recycle lithium ion batteries. The plant deals with batteries from a number of manufacturers, (Tesla, Toyota and Nissan). The battery recycling process smelters down the batteries to recover precious metals such as cobalt and nickel.