Electric car batteries: A second life? from freeamfva's blog

Electric car batteries: A second life?

Embedded in the European Union's sweeping set of measures to combat climate change released this week was a stark warning to the automobile industry: the days of petrol-powered cars are numbered.Get more news about Mf Car Battery,you can vist our website!

Today, more than 10 million electric cars, buses and trucks exist on our roads, compared to only 100,000 a decade ago. By 2030 that number is expected to jump to at least 145 million, according to the International Energy Agency. It means an equal number of lithium-ion batteries required to make them run. But these batteries, which contain critical metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, have a limited lifespan. What happens when they get to the end of the road?One possible solution is to prolong the batteries' life by using them to store energy. A battery with 80 percent storage capacity may no longer be fit for use in a car, but will still function.

Car manufacturer Nissan is already trialling this form of energy storage at a data centre in Normandy, in the west of France. Two used electric car batteries store energy produced by solar panels installed on the roof, with the electricity then released when the network needs it.The technology, known as xStorage, has since been employed at a football stadium in Amsterdam.

Nissan's Electric Vehicle Director Grégory Nève says: "There is value in these batteries. That's what's interesting, they have an ecological benefit, they have an economic benefit and that's why we're doing it."Eventually the batteries will however come to the end of their life. And that's when perhaps the biggest challenge arrives: how to recycle them?

Mining and metallurgy company Eramet is at the forefront of efforts to extract the precious materials inside, including nickel and cobalt salts and lithium carbonate. Eramet's Senior Officer for Partnerships and Strategy, Nicolas Verdier, says many countries are eager to develop the technology.

"Supplying metals for electric vehicles will be a major challenge for the years to come. Either we exploit conventional mines, which are mainly located outside Europe, or we tap into these resources and exploit this urban mine," he explains.

Eramet is still trying to prove the activity can be profitable in Europe. In the long term, it's hoped the materials extracted will not only be pure enough to be reused in new electric car batteries, but that their overall carbon footprint will be lower than if they were extracted from a mine.