Recently, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data showing that in the first two months of the year, sales of new energy vehicles reached nearly 75,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 200%. The new energy vehicle industry has entered a golden age of development, with major automakers' combined sales targets now exceeding 700,000 units, approaching the total cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China. However, with the first batch of new energy vehicles now five years old, my country is also experiencing a mini-peak in the retirement of power batteries, making their recycling and reuse a thorny issue for the new energy vehicle industry.
It is reported that my country began piloting a subsidy policy for new energy vehicles in 2010 and fully promoted new energy vehicles in 2016. Generally, power batteries are retired after 5-6 years. This means that starting in 2018, a large number of power batteries in my country will enter their scrapping period. It is estimated that by 2020, the cumulative amount of scrapped batteries in my country will reach 120,000 to 170,000 tons.
Currently, most power batteries are lithium batteries, some of which contain toxic substances and are highly carcinogenic. New energy vehicles, which are supposed to be "green and environmentally friendly," can cause multiple forms of pollution if their power batteries are not properly recycled and disposed of.
"However, compared to the lead-acid batteries of the past, the copper, cobalt, and lithium metals in the now widely used lithium batteries have higher economic value. Under market mechanisms, used power batteries will be favored by recycling companies," said a technician from a new energy vehicle company. Many industry insiders believe that new energy vehicle batteries still have value after retirement, and their recycling methods mainly involve cascade utilization and resource regeneration.
However, the overall recycling network for power batteries is still very underdeveloped. Neither cascade utilization nor recycling has truly reached a large scale, and the technology still needs upgrading. It is understood that only a few third-party recycling companies in my country have built their own recycling networks, and a collaborative power battery recycling system involving automakers, battery companies, recycling companies, and logistics companies is far from being established.
"The key technologies in each stage of the recycling of retired power batteries are not yet mature enough, and some battery recycling companies still use manual dismantling or traditional recycling processes," said Zhang Changling, a senior engineer at the China Automotive Technology Research Center. He added that recycling one ton of waste lithium iron phosphate power batteries using traditional processes would not only fail to generate profit, but could also result in losses.
In late February this year, seven ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly formulated the "Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles," clarifying that automobile manufacturers bear the primary responsibility for the recycling of power batteries.
However, some details still trouble relevant companies, and industry insiders are calling for the development of more detailed and comprehensive standards. Experts say the urgent task is to resolve the battery traceability issue as soon as possible, establishing a battery traceability mechanism using a new energy vehicle monitoring platform to ensure traceability of the entire battery lifecycle, from its inception to its final disposal. Simultaneously, support should be given to companies with R&D and refining capabilities, particularly guiding the integration of battery recycling companies with battery companies, and promoting the integration of recycling companies with resource materials companies.
