Where Do EV Batteries Go When They Die?

Dozens of electric vehicles are scheduled to debut in the next few years and over 300 million electric vehicles are expected to be on the world’s roads by 2030. The lifetime for an EV battery is estimated to be 12 to 15 years in moderate climates, but that doesn't mean the batteries end up in landfills when they die.

There are a number of companies working on lithium-ion battery recycling including Li-Cycle, Redwood Materials and Spiers New Technologies, or SNT.

SNT focuses on refurbishing, repurposng and recycling EV batteries to give them a second life. It already works with Volvo, Porsche, GM, Ford and others to take old batteries and make them new again. The estimated reuse lifetime of an EV battery can range anywhere from five to 30 years.

By 2050, the demand for graphite, lithium and cobalt is expected to increase by 500 percent because of the battery boom, so extending the life of an EV battery can reduce the need for critical minerals and new mines.

CNBC visited SNT at its headquarters in Oklahoma City to see how an EV battery is given a second life.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
01:25 - What happens to old EV batteries?
04:18 - Business model
11:00 - Can mining be replaced?

Produced, Shot and Edited by: Sydney Boyo
Additional Camera: Magdalena Petrova, Liam Mays
Senior Producer: Katie Tarasov
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Animator: Mallory Brangan
Additional Footage: Spiers New Technologies

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Where Do EV Batteries Go When They Die?

[jeremiah]

Glad these guys are forward thinking. It's better to anticipate a problem and handle it preemptively. We need more companies like this.

[mikewarren]

EV drivetrain battery pack recycling and repurposing will become an incredibly important industry moving forward. I am thankful for these startups.

[dark-violet]

Great
Recycling is an essential part of electrification.

[JuffoWup]

I think the next real big innovation will be some form of standardized battery dimensions. This will help these companies with recycling as they would have more unified approach so they aren't taking angle grinders to the tops of the units to get at the batteries. But also probably add some automation to disassembly because they could be put into a jig to just unbolt the entire top in a single pass. We already have standardized charging ports on the cars, so locking down the battery dimensions would be the next real step to help with recycling and maintenance.

[jimboslice]

ABTC is the only US company that will be mining AND recycling. Simply incredible.

[casablancasj]

$ABML - American Battery Technology Company. Holding since 2020 and couldn’t be more excited!

[Rod-bpow]

The method the items are placed into recycling standard is excellent. It saves the environment, while raw materials are always derived from its source. It can always be as efficient with its products, goods and the services that it brings. PLDT SME nation..thank you

[Johrdahn]

0:47 this guy’s laugh took me out. Lol

[patrickbateman]

Wish these videos showed the specific processes. Like the black mush. Is it seperated? Can you seperate lithium from that? Does anyone buy the black mush or do they use it? How was the black mush made? Did they just put a battery in a blender.

[frankcoffey]

Folks with home solar love to get these batteries. Even if they are degraded they still hold many times the energy of a Tesla power wall.

[ianoliveira]

Abml is the way to go. Still super cheap OTC. Not for long though in my opinion.

[RM-rhmz]

Big fan of American battery technology company ! ♻️♻️♻️

[ShadLife]

Great information here. This is just the beginning of a whole new industry that will support EVs.

[frequentlycynical]

This is so encouraging! I've seen a YT video where a garage that works only on EV's fixed a "dead" battery by replacing a few defective cells. Batteries consist of cells, your lead acid car battery has six of them. It's rare that they all degrade at the same rate. I recently had a car battery that was all but dead. Using a hydrometer (it measures the specific gravity of the acid) three cells were excellent and three were dead! Applying this to a hundred? celled EV battery, you find the bed cells, replace them with good ones from other "dead" batteries.

You can bet someone will be rebuilding Tesla batteries before long. Too big a market place and oh-so-easy to beat the price of a new Tesla battery.

[sirdiealot]

I keep imagining in the future we’ll be mining landfills for minerals

[thesaynver]

They didn't say any of the black mat was being sorted back into individual minerals.

True recycling was a last resort.

The majority of what they are doing is swapping in new cells into these damaged and degraded packs.

The true recycling is still a mystery.

And one pack catches fire and that whole warehouse is torched.

They have probably hundreds tons of shredded plastic that is going to the landfill.

And who wants a half shot battery for their renewable energy storage?

This reminds me of plastic recycling currently. We spend tons of money and energy gathering and sorting, but the majority goes into the landfill without and true recycling occurring.

[Kjunkie]

Love this topic! Can CNBC interview CEOs from American Batt, Redwood, etc??

[alexhidalgo]

ABML needs to partner with SQM from Chile so they can mine their 15 million tons of the mineral they have recently discovered on the property ABML owns in Nevada. They also need to partner with one of the big automakers in the US for battery recycling (GM, Ford or Tesla). Mining and recycling is the key here for ABML. ABML will be a double digit stock very soon!!

[ronkirk]

Some EV naysayers ask the question about what we will do with all the spent battery packs. The answer is easy because with battery packs costing $10, 000-12, 000, they will ALL be either repurposed as stationary energy storage in homes and businesses or completely recycled for the valuable minerals. I expect manufacturers will also help this process by making battery packs that are even easier to recycle. The process will become a closed loop.

[JoshuaG]

0:45 Man's a Savage, but spoke the truth 🤣🤟