From the UK:
Electric carmakers are breaking the law by allowing batteries from scrapped vehicles to pile up in scrapyards, a senior industry figure has claimed…
Manufacturers are legally obliged to take back these dangerous batteries from scrapped cars, but giants including BMW, Citroen, Honda and Mercedes-Benz have been accused of failing to collect them from scrapyards.
DB2
Big business has been polluting the landscape since the invention of capitalism. This really isn’t news.
intercst
Car batteries used to be just thrown away until government mandated that they be recycled. It turned into a good business once scale was achieved, but there was no way to get it started when it was just a few gas stations and D-I-Yers replacing their batteries. I get that there’s already a law requiring companies to take care of their damaged EV car batteries, so many all that’s needed is “enforcement”?
I find the whole thing surprising. Those batteries still have substantial value (in $$$), why would anyone throw them away? There’s an ex-Tesla person that started up a whole battery recycling company and it may be quite profitable someday.
They are discussing damaged batteries which may be a different economic situation than spent batteries.
DB2
They don’t reuse the battery packs much, instead they take apart the battery packs and use the cells that are still good enough to be used for certain applications. When a battery pack gets damaged in a crash, it obviously can’t be reused as is.
Re: once scale is achieved
After 8 or 10 years we might get to steady state as lithium EV batteries begin to wear out. Until then its likely to be a business in development. Some companies are working on it. Profits are likely to be elusive.
Lack of enforcement in the UK. The UK government can start to fine and pressure BMW, Citroen, Honda and Mercedes-Benz to comply with law. It seems like everything else is falling apart under the UK conservative government, and they are still celebrating BREXIT fiasco.
Last year, we announced our expansion plans in Europe to support our mission of creating a closed-loop battery supply chain. Localizing the global battery supply chain across the US and Europe will be critical to driving down the costs and increasing the sustainability of electric vehicles and clean energy storage.
Europe continues to be the fastest growing EV market globally, driven by automakers commitments and strong government support to electrify. To support this demand and to further expand Redwood’s operations and commitment to the European market, we’ve acquired Redux Recycling GmbH, the EU’s leading lithium-ion battery recycler. This acquisition will provide us with a well-established EU presence to quickly expand operations, increase capacity for battery recycling, and work closely with already-established suppliers, customers and industry partners across Europe. The European market for battery recycling and materials manufacturing is growing rapidly and the acquisition of Redux positions Redwood as a key player in this market.
The facility, located in Bremerhaven, on Germany’s North Sea coast, is equipped for 10,000 tonnes of annual processing capacity to recycle many form factors and lithium-ion battery chemistries. The facility is centrally located within Europe and near the Bremerhaven Port, one of the largest and most important import harbors for vehicles, allowing Redwood the ability to transport, recycle, and refine electric vehicle packs and batteries from across the European continent.
The Redux facility is equipped to recycle electric vehicle and E-bike batteries, stationary storage systems and consumer devices like cell phones, laptops, and power drills.