Battery from old EV gets second life more often
Since 2020, the percentage of recycled and reused electric car batteries has increased from nearly 70 percent to 83 percent. There are two main reasons for this: there are more and more electric cars and the proportion of battery packs suitable for reuse is increasing.
Reuse of battery packs
More electric and hybrid cars, that means more batteries to recycle. At the beginning of 2020 there were only 200,000 electric passenger cars driving in the Netherlands, at the beginning of 2022 this number had increased to 380,000 vehicles
(RVO figures via NederlandElektrisch)
. In addition, battery packs are increasingly successful in other applications. In the past year, a growing proportion of these batteries proved suitable for this purpose.
Auto Recycling Netherlands
Many car importers in the Netherlands work together with ARN (Auto Recycling Nederland). This umbrella organization of approximately three hundred car dismantling companies is increasingly specializing in the collection and high-quality recycling of battery packs. By 2021, 127,537 kilograms of lithium-ion batteries were collected and recycled through ARN. In 2020, it was still 121,020 kilograms.
How does battery recycling work?
Recycling is done in two ways:
- Almost half (59,465 kilograms) of the old batteries yield scarce raw materials, such as cobalt and nickel. For an average of 67 percent of the collected battery packs, specialized battery recycling companies can give these materials a new use.
- The remaining 68,072 kilograms will receive a so-called second-use application as an existing battery pack. Consider, for example, a neighborhood battery, which can store generated solar energy. 97 percent of battery packs get a second life this way.
If you add these two methods together, you arrive at an average of 83 percent reuse with discarded battery packs from electric cars.
Collection of battery packs
The lithium-ion batteries from electric cars, or their components, are collected from car dismantling companies and from dealerships. This includes attention to careful and safe disassembly, storage and transport of batteries and materials. ARN supports the affiliated car dismantling companies with training and tools to safely dismantle the battery. Transportation is done by a specialized collection company, which uses certified packaging to ensure safe transportation and storage.
Did you know.
Car manufacturers and importers are required by law to repossess the batteries used to power and an electric car?
Read also: All about hybrid batteries, lifespan, price, repair or replacement