Electric vehicle battery recycling

As automakers continue to compete in electric car races, some wonder where the batteries will go after the end of their useful life. Simply disposing of batteries in some landfill does not contribute to the environment and cannot appeal to either automakers or customers. To address this concern, some of the leading car makers in electric car racing are working with companies familiar with electricity and energy to plan ways to recycle and recycle old electric car batteries and their energy. I am.

General Motors announced that it will work with ABB, a Swiss company that is a leader in power and automation technology and the world’s largest supplier of power grid systems, to devise plans to reuse Chevrolet Bolt batteries. The two companies will develop several pilot projects to investigate volt 16 kWh lithium-ion batteries and see how to use a second life car battery to provide a grid storage system. In a pilot project, companies will investigate renewable energy storage, grid load management, community backup power, and time-of-use management.

According to Mickey Bree, Executive Director of Electrical Systems at GM, “Volt’s battery has a significant amount of capacity to store electrical energy, even after the car’s life has expired.” It is offered in Volt. If the car’s battery is recycled after the 8 year or 100,000 mile warranty, it means that the battery still has energy that can be used for other purposes. Therefore, GM’s ultimate goal through the ABB partnership is to find cost-effective solutions that optimize the entire battery life cycle and improve the efficiency of the country’s power grid.

Another automaker that has begun to study the possibility of battery recycling is Nissan. Nissan has established a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to conduct research on used lithium-ion batteries. A joint venture called 4R Energy aims to “reuse, resell, recycle and recycle” the batteries that power the Nissan LEAF.

It is expected that verification tests and commercialization studies will be conducted toward the development of the second life business of lithium-ion batteries.

Finally, California electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors is investigating the potential of outdated electric vehicle batteries between SolarCity, the national leader in solar design and installation, and the University of California, Berkeley. Participated in the research project of. The trio is developing a system that combines Tesla’s electric vehicle battery system with SolarCity’s surveillance platform to produce advanced grid-interactive photovoltaic (PV) and stationary storage products that can be installed in buildings. The idea is that the battery storage created collects extra PV power that the utility can use, rather than using a higher emission power plant.

Therefore, as electric vehicle racing intensifies, General Motors, Nissan and Tesla Motors all appear to be participating in electric vehicle battery racing. With big ideas like storing renewable energy, smart grids, and providing backup power to buildings, we know where the second life of electric vehicle batteries will end.