Battery recycling, the other challenge of switching to electric vehicles


“The question of recycling will arise massively during the 2030s,” said economics professor Patrice Geoffron. xiaoliangge / stock.adobe.com

INVESTIGATION – Recycling needs in Europe will be multiplied by three by 2027. While the challenges are economic as well as strategic and ecological, the sector is just beginning to structure itself.

In 2035, nearly 16 million electric vehicles could circulate in France, according to the high hypothesis of RTE, the manager of the electricity transmission network. If manufacturers are now concentrating on manufacturing the batteries needed for these cars, the question of their end of life will quickly arise. What to do with these millions of batteries once they are too worn out and therefore out of use? The answer seems obvious: what we already do with multiple wastes, that is to say recycle them.

Given the exponential growth of electric vehicles, recycling will be decisivesays Magalie Roy-Auberger, head of the battery recycling program at IFP Énergies Nouvelles. In a report published last July, the International Energy Agency (IEA) writes that “in the long term, recycling will contribute significantly to the supply» in critical metals (lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper, etc.)

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