China could supply EV manufacturing boom with recycled EVs

While recycling is a mathematically obvious response to the finite, non-renewable nature of many resources, the economic math is often challenging. For many materials, it can be hard to compete with virgin materials on a cost basis. Fast-moving technologies like electric vehicles add complications: by the time a car is scrapped, the industry may have moved on to a different battery chemistry, reducing the value of recycling the car’s battery back into production. Still, a study led by Xin Xiong at Nanjing University finds that in China, recycling could become the dominant source of many key materials needed to manufacture EV components over the coming decades. The researchers modeled how the supply of recycled materials compares to manufacturing demand in China between 2010 and 2050. It covers materials relevant to batteries across hybrid, battery-electric, and fuel-cell vehicles including lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, phosphorus, sodium, sulfur, and graphite, as well as critical elements used in electric motors such as copper, neodymium, dysprosium, samarium, and cerium.