EV battery pack recycling: an emerging super-profitable business in China

Since the beginning of 2015, a series of government policies have been come out to support the development of alternative fuel vehicles. As the development of electric vehicles, the commercialization of used battery pack recycling becoming the key to success in the industry, because battery recycling contains a great profitable potential.

There has existed a government regulation for battery recycle in 2012 and then another one since 2014, which pointed out the main enterprises for recycling and how the battery could be reused. Besides, these regulations encouraged companies to independently research the recycling processing technology.

As it is known to all, one singular 20-gram phone lithium batteries can contaminated a large quantity of water, which can fill 3 standard swimming pool; or pollute a one-square kilometer land for 50 years. Then it is not hard to image how dangerous the one-ton battery pack could be if not recycled. Therefore, only if the battery recycling can be resolved in production and sales sections, the pure EV industry can receive a healthy development.

Moreover, many local supports have been given to EV battery recycling industry after the issue of the government ones. For example, the local government of Shanghai city would attach 1000 CNY to each battery pack for the company who recycle battery packs.

In fact, these supports from governments remain far from enough for encouraging battery recycling. Each battery pack varies from each other in structure, adding difficulty for processing. And lithium battery recycling points are very limited in number. Despite the high subsidy from government, the falling behind processing techniques raises the cost, leaving little profit for enterprises.

However, we can image how profitable the battery recycling business can be by referring to foreign statistics form Ihscera Company. The profit will jump from 2012’s $200 million to $19 billion in 2017. And some of the largest foreign automakers have actively joined in the business. For example, Tesla has released a recycled battery pack for home applications and public places, followed by Daimler AG planning to launch solar-powered batteries.