What happens to old electric car batteries? 🪫
This image is sourced from Plugin Garages
As you may have heard, the government has set out a plan to reach Net Zero by 2050, this involves stopping the production of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030. But sooner than that, in 2024 a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate will be introduced requiring all car manufacturers to guarantee a percentage of their sales must be fully electric.
The demand for electric cars has been rising fast over the last few years, and in 2022 they accounted for almost a fifth of new car sales - so we are getting closer to a greener environment. With the increasing trend of electric cars, you are probably wondering what happens to car batteries when they can no longer power a car. So in this article that's exactly what we are going to tell you!
Did you know…
Over a car's lifetime, internal combustion engine (ICE) cars burn around 17,000 litres of petrol and 13,500 of diesel.
To put it into perspective, a study by Transport and Environment explains that if the oil barrels were stacked on top of each other, they would be around 70-90 m high - this is the equivalent of a 25 story building!!
However, with electric car batteries, once you take into account the recycling of the materials and that most of the metal content is recovered, only 30 kg would be lost - the size of a football!!
According to SMMT’s 2022 Automotive Sustainability Report, from 2015 car manufacturers were required to ensure that 95% of the vehicle (by weight) is recycled, re-used or recovered. So, as most electric car batteries have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, after which manufacturers have to find a way to sustainably dispose of them.
Sometimes a battery is recycled
With levels of electric vehicle production increasing, the industry needs all the help they can get to source the materials needed to keep up with demand. One way that the Transport Environment report recommends the industry does this is by recycling 90% of lithium and 98% of cobalt, nickel and copper electric car batteries. By doing this, we prevent the need for mining new materials.
Car manufacturers are introducing new ways into how they are going to recycle or reuse EV batteries when they are no longer efficient. Volkswagen announced their first pilot plant for battery recycling, batteries at the site will be accessed for two paths: to be recycled or to be given a second life.
Sometimes a battery is given second life
When an electric car battery is 30% or more of its initial capacity, it is no longer good enough to power a car. But 30% is such a small percentage, so industry professionals have been looking into ways of giving batteries - a second life.
Here are what some car manufacturers are doing at the moment:
Renault are looking at building a stationary electricity storage facility using repurposing Renault Zoe EV batteries to power it. They also mention using the batteries to power other engines, such as boats.
Toyota will install discarded batteries outside convenience stores in Japan. They will be used to store energy from solar panels to support power to drink fridges, food warmers and fresh produces counters
Nissan, an early player in the electric car market and one of the first companies to look into second lives for batteries, is repurposing electric car batteries to provide backup power to the Amsterdam Arena
With all the ongoing developments around second lives for electric car batteries, it is safe to say that their lifespan doesn't stop at powering your car. They will outlive it and help the environment another way!
How can I get my hands on an electric car?
The Electric Car Scheme is here to make the switch to an electric car more affordable through salary sacrifice.
Instead of leasing an electric car in the usual way, which is paid with your post-tax (or net) income, the fixed monthly payments are taken from your salary before any income tax or National Insurance is paid. This will allow you to save 30-60%!
As a car through The Electric Car Scheme is an employee benefit provided to you, it’s therefore a ‘company car’, so there is a company car tax payable. However, the value of this “benefit-in-kind” (BIK) is set by HMRC, and set at very low rates until at least 2028.
Check out the latest electric cars on our salary sacrifice car calculator.
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