How does China handle retired NEV batteries?

As the adoption of new energy vehicles (NEVs) continues to rise, China is facing a significant increase in retired lithium batteries. Last year, China retired more than 580,000 tonnes of lithium batteries. The number is expected to reach 800,000 tonnes next year.

This surge has raised critical questions about the handling of these batteries.

According to China's national standards for NEVs, when the capacity of lithium batteries falls below 80 percent of the rated capacity, they are no longer suitable for electric vehicles and must be recycled by qualified enterprises.

Electric car batteries weigh hundreds of kilograms. Experts say that when a vehicle is scrapped, the lithium hexafluorophosphate in the battery gets easily hydrolyzed in the air and produces harmful substances such as phosphorus pentafluoride and hydrogen fluoride, which will cause environmental pollution if not treated properly.

In addition, retired lithium batteries actually have a high use value.

At present, there are two modes of lithium battery recycling: cascade utilization and material recovery.

Cascade utilization involves repurposing batteries for applications with lower energy density requirements, such as energy storage systems. Material recovery focuses on extracting valuable metals like cobalt, nickel and lithium for reuse in new batteries.

With the continuous growth of China's NEV industry, the battery recycling industry has also been growing rapidly.

Zhang Ying, president of the Automotive Recycling Industry Development Committee of the China Association for Economic Development in Asia, told China Media Group that there are more than 15,000 recycling outlets in China, which can cover more than 85 percent of the entire market field of NEVs.

According to the China Resources Recycling Association, in 2023, the net increase of vehicle scrap was 7.56 million, a year-on-year increase of 32 percent, and the standard recycling and utilization of used household appliances was about 93 million units, with a weight of about 4.4 million tonnes. More than 200 million pieces of furniture were recycled. Among them, the recycling and utilization of 10 major renewable resources, including scrap steel, scrap non-ferrous metals and waste plastics, amounted to about 392 million tonnes, which continued to play a prominent role in supporting national resource security.