What happens to electric car batteries when they run out?, How long do electric car batteries last

What do we do with the batteries once their life is over?

What occurs to the batteries in electric cars when they run out? Despite the fact that electric car sales have not taken off in Spain as they should, the fact that they are being registered at an increasing rate means that this type of vehicle is gradually becoming more common. Our lungs may enjoy this, but the drama of pollution does not go away. And what happens to the electric car batteries after they have served their purpose?

Sales of electric cars

The markets are taking their time accepting electric cars as passenger vehicles, despite proposals from the administration, environmental organisations, and business. These non-polluting vehicles are only now becoming common in a few nations, including Norway, which led the world in registrations in the first half of the year with 56.2% of the total (43,976 units). With 14.4%, 11.3%, and 10.1% of all registered cars of this sort, respectively, consumers from Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands are likewise in the lead. These vehicles are still being used to a very limited extent elsewhere in the area. In Spain, where 8,958 passenger automobiles out of a total of 692,472 were registered between January and June, 1.3%, according to data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers.

The electric car has three major problems , which are what prevent its sales from skyrocketing. The manufacturers are working on these three situations, which makes their registrations grow little by little; Now, what will happen to the batteries of these electric vehicles when they run out?

And what happens to the electric car batteries when they run out?

Electric car batteries , most of them lithium, become a problem once their useful life is over. And it is that ending them can be a business opportunity, although there is still no clear protocol on what to do with them, and the process is expensive.

Electric car batteries are usually heavy, have a complex design and their construction process is based on stacked and rolled plates. And what to do with them once they are exhausted is a challenge for the industry. An example of this is China, where the electric car has been a reality for longer.

The ideal would be to try to recycle them, since even if they run out, they still have components that can be useful, so the ideal is to recover them to be able to use them again. The downside is that the process is not easy.

The battery recycling process

The electric car battery recycling process itself is complex. Two processes can currently be carried out. One, the cheapest, is to shred the battery that reaches the recycling plant. The downside is that few raw materials are recovered. The second is the painstaking disassembly of the battery, a more costly process in both time and money.

In addition, the battery has acids and different toxic substances that must be stored, since they cannot be recycled, so the industry also faces the creation of cemeteries for these substances. 

As our colleagues from Computer Hoy explain , to get a ton of lithium, 250 tons of this mineral are needed, or 750 tons of lithium-rich brine. If one ton of lithium is to be obtained from recycled batteries , it would take 250 car batteries to make them. 

What the law in the EU says about batteries

A piece of information: according to reports from El Diario , in the European Union, only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled . Most of it ends up stored in drawers, accumulated in landfills or incinerated. This entails two problems: one, for the environment, and two, it generates dependency on the supply.

According to current European laws, producers of electric vehicle batteries (considered industrial) must bear the costs of collection, management and recycling. But, as in China, Europe has not developed technical standards for recycling electric car batteries either.