Battery Technology · 5 min read
What Happens To EV Batteries When They Are No Longer Needed?
When an EV battery is no longer suitable for driving, it usually isn't ready for the bin. Its useful life often continues elsewhere before valuable materials are eventually recovered.
Like an old laptop battery, an EV battery may no longer be ideal for one job but can still be useful elsewhere.
Battery life in vehicles
Most EV batteries stay in the vehicle for well over a decade. Manufacturer data suggests many will remain usable for driving longer than the vehicle around them.
Battery degradation
A battery is generally considered ready for a "second life" when it has around 70–80% of its original capacity remaining. That's still an enormous amount of stored energy — just not ideal for a car that needs peak performance.
Second-life storage
Retired EV battery packs can be reused as stationary energy storage — for homes, businesses, or grid balancing. In these roles they don't need fast charging or peak range, so partly-degraded cells work well.
Recycling
Once cells finally reach the end of their useful life, recycling processes can recover key materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper. The technology is improving fast and the industry is scaling to match rising EV volumes.
EV batteries contain valuable materials including lithium, nickel and copper that can potentially be recovered.
The sustainability of EVs depends on the whole lifecycle, not just the vehicle.