Are Electric Vehicle Batteries Recyclable?

As those who check out this excellent article on the subject of recycling EV batteries will learn, the answer is a qualified yes, and the entire arena is growing more robust with each passing year.

The first thing to understand is that old EV batteries often serve a second life as stationary energy storage, where the demand for energy density is not a consideration.  An EV battery that initially stored 100 kWhrs that loses 20% over time will normally be replaced, but that 80 kWhr battery still has significant use in various places.

Once it’s finished, it’s time for recycling, to extract and reuse the many valuable materials. Large machines shred the batteries, the start of a long process that separates plastics and ferrous materials, then lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, using a “hydrometallurgical” process (see article).

Increasingly, these recycled materials are used to manufacture new batteries, which reduces the amount of mining required to put new EVs on the road.

The entire process is a long way from perfect, but it will be far closer to that ideal by the time most of today’s EVs are ready for retirement.