But aren’t almost all EV batteries either pouch or cylindrical cells made by a limited number of OEMs? Don’t think it would be too hard for major recyclers to spring up and make a living putting like cell types together for second life applications. Just because it doesn’t exist now doesn’t mean it won’t.
EV prices
- Thread starter pc-guy
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I think there will be a huge recycling industry a few years down the line. It is only a matter of time.
Unless the hydrogen fuel cells cars can really take off - which doesn’t seem to be the case, EVs are here to stay tbh. And decarbonisation will happen through the grid
Unless the hydrogen fuel cells cars can really take off - which doesn’t seem to be the case, EVs are here to stay tbh. And decarbonisation will happen through the grid
Absolutely, I think its important to make the clear distinction between recycling and this so called "second life" that people seem to think is going to be common place for old EV batteries as they are quite different things. To mix up the two terms would be like me claiming that my ICE will have a "second life" as a lamp post! It just needs to be stripped, crushed and meted down first.
yeah repurposing and recycling are very different concept.
Whilst Repurposing makes sense if the battery packs have significant remaining life to be useful. but chances are if a battery pack is taken out and deemed not fit for use, it is more than likely to be recycled. the new batteries are modular so there is good chance some of the cells will be ok while others are crap.
Whilst Repurposing makes sense if the battery packs have significant remaining life to be useful. but chances are if a battery pack is taken out and deemed not fit for use, it is more than likely to be recycled. the new batteries are modular so there is good chance some of the cells will be ok while others are crap.
Hydrogen fuel cells for cars make no sense - that's why they've not taken off. Using green electricity to make hydrogen and back to electricity again results in over 60% of the energy being lost. It's much more sensible to put the energy into a battery where only around 10% is lost. That waste also has to be paid for so hydrogen will always be at least 2-3x the cost of using electricity directly.
The only time this does make sense is when there's absolutely no access to electricity, such as at sea.
Regarding reuse/recycling -
As others have said, if you take out a 20 year old battery pack from a car that's reached the end of it's useful life, it'll still have 70-80% of it's design capacity. That is worth a lot more in the form of a battery than as material for recycling. Therefore it makes sense to use it for storage (rather than manufacturing new batteries for storage).
Once it's no longer useful for storage, then it can be recycled and made into a brand new battery. The recycling industry is just getting going - at the moment there's not much to recycle. They are currently recycling the leftovers from the battery manufacturing process but this will scale up when there's more material available to recycle.
The only time this does make sense is when there's absolutely no access to electricity, such as at sea.
Regarding reuse/recycling -
As others have said, if you take out a 20 year old battery pack from a car that's reached the end of it's useful life, it'll still have 70-80% of it's design capacity. That is worth a lot more in the form of a battery than as material for recycling. Therefore it makes sense to use it for storage (rather than manufacturing new batteries for storage).
Once it's no longer useful for storage, then it can be recycled and made into a brand new battery. The recycling industry is just getting going - at the moment there's not much to recycle. They are currently recycling the leftovers from the battery manufacturing process but this will scale up when there's more material available to recycle.
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I doubt cars will become really affordable in a normal sense, the future is probably cars as a service.
You want cheap, here you go
www.myelectricvehicle.org
You want cheap, here you go
MEV City 3.0 & 5.0
The MEV City offers two models with a range of up to 70 miles. Three point seat belts and fully road worthy it's a fantastic and affordable first car option.
www.myelectricvehicle.org
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