By the end of 2018, the amount of scrapped power batteries may have approached 200,000 tons, making recycling and reuse an urgent necessity. With policy guidance and market adjustments, companies are increasingly positioning themselves in the power battery recycling sector.
Starting June 1, 2018, the "Shenzhen Pilot Program for the Construction of a National New Energy Vehicle Power Battery Supervision and Recycling System (2018-2020)" will be officially implemented. This is also the most practically significant program for the implementation of power battery recycling.
It is reported that the plan issued by Shenzhen Municipality implements the responsibilities for the supervision, recycling, and reuse of power batteries, with the goal of bringing the entire lifecycle of power batteries for all new energy vehicles within the scope of subsidies under supervision by 2020. Industry insiders believe that this will play an important guiding and demonstrative role nationwide.
The entire plan can be summarized in three key aspects: detailed recording of the production, use, and disposal of power batteries; the construction of a complete power battery recycling network and the gradual promotion of professional disposal; and the vigorous promotion of the cascade utilization and recycling of power batteries.
It can be said that the solution released by Shenzhen basically covers the main problems in all aspects of the existing power battery recycling and disposal. If the issue of "difficulty in recycling" power batteries can be successfully overcome, the concerns about the future development of new energy vehicles will be further alleviated.
In fact, the rapid development of new energy vehicles has, to some extent, promoted the maturity of power battery recycling solutions. After all, if we want to further promote new energy vehicles, we cannot allow power batteries to become a new source of pollution. As the downstream of the entire industry, policies, regulations, and market mechanisms are all inclined to extract the remaining value from used power batteries and carry out green disposal.
However, it is worth noting that the utilization and recycling of power batteries, whether in a tiered or recycled manner, has not yet reached a large scale, and the technology still needs optimization and breakthroughs. Therefore, collaborating with automakers, battery companies, recycling companies, and logistics companies, and involving car owners, would be the best solution to collaboratively address the issues of power battery resource utilization and harmless disposal.
According to the "Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles" jointly issued by seven ministries in February 2018, automobile manufacturers will bear the primary responsibility for the recycling of power batteries. Although industry insiders caution that more detailed standards are needed, the guiding role of policy is clearly becoming increasingly significant. The pilot program introduced by Shenzhen is undoubtedly a good start.
Professional organizations predict that the power battery market will see an average annual compound growth rate exceeding 50%, becoming the next big growth area in the new energy vehicle industry chain. Considering the promotion volume and cycle of new energy vehicles, power batteries are indeed approaching the stage of large-scale scrapping and recycling. Data from 2017 shows that over 80,000 tons of lithium batteries were recycled, indicating that the market may indeed experience explosive growth after technological and scale breakthroughs.
Following this path, many automakers have already invested in power battery recycling services, based on their long-term development strategies. Examples include the strong alliance between SAIC Motor and CATL; the research and innovation between BAIC New Energy and the Xinxiang Battery Research Institute; and the strategic cooperation agreement signed between BYD and China Tower Corporation.
The trend of "positioning" itself in the recycling and reuse of power batteries has become inevitable, and the convergence of various capital sources has been evident for some time. This also indicates that my country's power battery recycling and reuse not only has a rigid demand, but is also gradually moving towards a standardized, intensive, large-scale, and commercialized model.
