The power battery recycling system needs to be improved urgently

As the market share of new energy vehicles in mainland China continues to rise, the problem of power battery recycling continues to heat up and has attracted widespread attention.

Relevant industry insiders believe that the mainland power battery recycling industry is still in the early stage of development: on the one hand, the number of retired power batteries will continue to soar, on the other hand, the recycling system of retired batteries still needs to be improved.

The pressure on power battery recycling in small and medium-sized cities has increased

On April 10, the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that from January to March this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 2.115 million and 2.09 million respectively, an increase of 28.2% and 31.8% year-on-year respectively, and the market share reached 31.1%. Among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of the three major types of new energy vehicles have increased to varying degrees.

In 2015, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments jointly issued the "Notice on the Promotion and Application of Financial Support Policies for New Energy Vehicles from 2016 to 2020", which proposed that from 2016 onwards, new energy vehicle manufacturers should provide consumers with quality assurance of energy storage devices such as power batteries, drive motors, and motor controllers, of which passenger car manufacturers should provide a warranty period of not less than 8 years or 120,000 kilometers (whichever comes first).

That is to say, the power batteries of new energy vehicles sold in 2016 have faced the problem of battery retirement since this year.

According to the forecast of power battery retirement by China Automotive Data, from 2023 to 2025, a total of 1.273 million new energy vehicles will be retired in China, and 63.8 GWh (530,000 tons) of power batteries will be retired. From the perspective of cities, China Automotive data shows that during the period from 2023 to 2025, the retired power batteries in the country are mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu, Beijing and other provinces and cities. Among them, the retirement volume of power batteries in Guangdong Province reached 102,000 tons, ranking first in the country, accounting for about 19.2% of the total number of retirements in the country.

This means that behind the boom in the new energy vehicle market, the pressure on the recycling of waste batteries is increasing day by day.

From the perspective of cities, the "retirement tide" is coming, in order to properly deal with a large number of retired power batteries, many cities in mainland China have begun to standardize the recycling and reuse of power batteries.

A few days ago, the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and the Fujian Provincial Department of Finance jointly formulated the "Several Measures to Support the Recycling of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles in the Province" to support the standardized and large-scale recycling of waste batteries for new energy vehicles, and encourage subsidies for eligible new energy vehicle waste battery recycling enterprises, and a single enterprise can receive a subsidy of up to 10 million yuan.

In December last year, Shandong Province issued the "Action Plan for the High-quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Industry in Shandong Province", which made it clear that it would accelerate the development of the new energy vehicle recycling industry, focusing on supporting the recycling of new energy vehicles, the cascade utilization of power batteries and the recycling and dismantling. Support Jinan, Qingdao, Zaozhuang, Jining, Linyi and other cities to develop new energy vehicles and power battery recycling and dismantling industries.

In January this year, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology of Sichuan Province issued the "Implementation Rules for Policies and Measures to Optimize the Energy Structure of Chengdu to Promote Urban Green and Low-Carbon Development (Trial)", pointing out that it supports the large-scale recycling of waste power batteries for new energy vehicles, the large-scale cascade utilization of waste power batteries for new energy vehicles, and the recycling of waste power batteries for new energy vehicles.

"The situation of power battery recycling varies from region to region, and some large cities have established a relatively complete recycling mechanism, and try to strengthen the cascade utilization and management of power batteries through cooperation with multiple parties. Hong Yong, an expert from the think tank of the 50-person forum on the integration of China's data and reality, said in an interview with a reporter from China City Daily that to improve this situation, cities should strengthen the management of the whole life cycle of batteries, formulate detailed testing, evaluation and classification standards, promote battery traceability systems, and encourage technological innovation and policy guidance to promote recycling.

"In some large cities, due to the promotion of new energy vehicles, the power battery recycling system is relatively perfect. However, the recycling system in many small and medium-sized cities and rural areas is not yet perfect, and there are problems such as few recycling points and insufficient recycling capacity. Zhan Junhao, founder of Fujian Great Aim Brand Positioning Consulting, added.

The recycling of power batteries is not standardized

Generally speaking, the residual capacity or charging and discharging performance of the power battery after use cannot ensure the normal operation of the new energy vehicle, it is regarded as a retired power battery.

"There are two ways to dispose of retired power batteries, namely cascade utilization and dismantling and recycling. Zhang Hong, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that the cascade utilization is to properly repair and unify the standards of waste batteries with higher residual capacity and overall needs to meet the needs of use, and then use them in energy storage, communication base station backup power, low-speed electric vehicles, electric forklifts and other fields with low energy requirements. Dismantling and recycling is the discharge and dismantling of retired batteries to refine raw materials to achieve recycling. At present, only lithium iron phosphate batteries in mainland China can play a residual value through cascade utilization, and ternary material batteries are still mainly dismantled and recycled.

As we all know, power batteries are rich in metal resources, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium, etc. If not properly handled, it not only wastes mineral resources, but also may cause heavy metal pollution. So, where does the power battery go after retirement?

Zhang Hong further analyzed that the formal recycling channels mainly include battery manufacturer recycling, new energy vehicle enterprise recycling, third-party recycling entrusted by manufacturers, and industrial alliance recycling. However, according to relevant surveys, by the end of 2023, the standardized recycling rate of power batteries for new energy vehicles in mainland China will be less than 25%. A large number of retired power batteries have flowed into informal channels, which are dismantled and processed by some small workshops on the spot.

A reporter from China City Daily searched for more than 140,000 enterprises related to the keywords "power battery recycling" and "power battery utilization" in the enterprise. However, up to now, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced 5 batches of whitelist enterprises that meet the "Industry Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", which are 5, 22, 20, 41, and 68, with a total of 156 enterprises.

In Zhang Hong's view, nowadays, the power battery recycling market is mixed, car companies set up information barriers, and outsiders cannot read out battery performance-related data from the power management system, so battery recycling companies have to disassemble the battery pack first, and then measure the battery, which is not only time-consuming, but also has hidden dangers of safety and pollution. In addition, there is no mandatory requirement for the traceability of power battery identity, and there is no data record for the use of many retired power batteries, and the use process and current status are unknown.

Zhan Junhao said that the recycling process of formal channels is relatively standardized, but there are still some problems, such as low recycling efficiency and high recycling costs. Informal channels may pose environmental pollution and safety hazards. In the process of EV battery recycling, the main challenges include technical difficulties, cost issues, and imperfect relevant regulations and policies.

In response to the problem of non-standard recycling of power batteries, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Waste Recycling System", proposing to carry out a joint special inspection action of cleaning up waste power batteries "workshop-type recycling", emphasizing the need to strengthen the traceability management of power batteries for new energy vehicles. Vigorously promote the quality certification of power battery cascade utilization, and study and formulate technical specifications for waste power battery recycling and dismantling enterprises.

In fact, the state has repeatedly issued policies on power battery management. In August 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other five departments jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for the Echelon Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", proposing to encourage echelon utilization enterprises to cooperate with enterprises such as new energy vehicle production, power battery production and scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling, and use existing recycling channels to efficiently recycle waste power batteries for echelon utilization.

On March 25, in order to further improve the comprehensive utilization of power batteries for new energy vehicles, the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized an online seminar, proposing to continue to improve the management system for the comprehensive utilization of power batteries, promote the introduction of management measures, and revise the "Industry Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles" in combination with the preliminary research.

It is necessary to establish a sound recycling system and management mechanism

Power battery recycling is not only related to policy requirements, but also attracts attention in the industry because of its huge market potential.

With the continuous expansion of the new energy vehicle market in mainland China and the continuous progress of power battery technology, the number of retired power batteries will continue to increase, which provides a huge market space for the power battery recycling industry. Cao Zhe, chief investment officer of Beijing Aiwen Zhiluo Investment Management Co., Ltd., told China City Daily that if a sound recycling system and management mechanism can be established, it is expected to drive the development of related industries and promote the development of circular economy.

In the face of such a huge market space, related companies have laid out in an attempt to seize market share. In March this year, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Group Co., Ltd. released its 2023 annual report, which shows that the use of electric vehicles and consumer electronics will inevitably drive the increasing social demand for the disposal of retired lithium batteries, and the company has broad market prospects and huge economic potential for lithium battery recycling business.

At the same time, power battery companies are also accelerating technological innovation and are committed to extending the service life of power batteries. Recently, NIO and CATL signed a cooperation agreement on the research and development of NIO's long-life batteries. Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO, said that battery life is not only a topic that NIO needs to pay attention to and solve, but also an industry problem that the entire industry needs to work together to solve. Only by solving the problem of battery life can China's new energy vehicle industry achieve long-term healthy and sustainable development and truly lead the transformation of the global automotive industry.

The quality of power batteries is related to the reliability of new energy vehicles, and the standardized and reasonable disposal of power batteries is the key to the sustainable development of new energy vehicles. Both government and business have a key role to play.

Cao Zhe believes that the government should strengthen policy guidance and supervision, establish a sound recycling system and management mechanism, and promote the concept of circular economy. At the same time, enterprises should also actively assume social responsibility, strengthen technology research and development and promotion, improve recycling efficiency and quality, and achieve a win-win situation of economic and social benefits.

In addition, Zhang Hong suggested that the government should establish a power battery carbon footprint standard system as soon as possible, build a power battery carbon emission data management system, and effectively guide the industrial chain to jointly reduce emissions;

■China City Daily reporter Zhu Lina