I've seen several articles recently about the potential problem of a used EV battery mountain developing in the future. I expect that many were triggered by the same initial report but none-the-less it's worth quickly reviewing the situation.
Sales of electric vehicles are taking off which is good news for air quality and climate change (provided the source electricity is generated from renewable technologies). However, current designs of batteries do not make for easy recycling with the potential that a mountain of end-of-life batteries could develop.
According to one article at present, in Europe, there are just 18 EV battery recycling firms; and some don't deal with the full range of metals.
There is a way out of this, of course: standardise batteries so that automated recycling becomes easier and incentivise recyclers. One of these depends upon auto manufacturers giving up on seeking competitive advantage in design, or legislators forcing them to do so; and the other requires the same legislators to change their spots and actually do something worthwhile.
There is but a small window of opportunity to get this right because although most EV batteries will last, say, 20 years (10 in car and then 10 repurposed) they all will have to be recycled at some point and having a load of 20 year old batteries of varying, difficult to tackle designs piling up will be of no help to anyone.
So legislators/regulators - 'tis time to get your act together.
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