batteries

The Electric Vehicle Batteries and Waste Colonialism Info Sheet emphasizes that transnational movements of spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries from high-income countries to countries in the Global South raise concerns on waste colonialism, when the destination countries are ill-equipped to safely handle this toxic waste. Major loops exist in international and regional frameworks such as Basel Convention and the EU Battery Regulation (page 2-3), which calls for the need to regulate exports of used EVs and EV batteries on safety, repairability, reusability, recyclability, and access to information on battery condition and movements (page 6).

The Collection and Transportation Logistics of Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling Info Sheet outlines main barriers to efficient battery collection systems, including high costs for long-distance transportation, complexity of handling battery scrap, and lack of policy and regulation. Such lack of a coordinated collection and transportation network has environmental justice implications, especially in countries in the Global South, where unregulated recycling practices pose risks to workers and the environment without adequate infrastructure or safety measures. Governments can play a pivotal role in coordinating for strategic facility citing, ensuring open access to battery state of health information, and providing incentives for battery collection.

The Battery Passports Info Sheet defines a battery passport as a digital twin of a physical battery, storing information including the battery’s label, manufacturing history and origin of its materials, battery chemistry, state of health, use history, safe handling and end-of-life (EoL) management. The battery passport is a means to support end-to-end traceability, and provides crucial information for decision-making on repair, reuse, repurposing and recyclability of the battery. A robust and widely accessible battery passport helps provide information critical to removing important barriers to repair, reuse, repurposing, recycling and end-of-life of EV batteries. A wide range of initiatives currently underway at sub-national, national and international levels are summarized in this Info Sheet, along with five key considerations for a fair and equitable battery passport and its relationship to environmental justice. 

The Repurposing and Second Life Info Sheet highlights the opportunities for EV batteries retired from a vehicle when they are at about 80% capacity to have a second life for another 10+ years and addressing environmental justice concerns, providing energy storage for residences, microgrids, and charging stations. Repurposing a used EV battery involves four steps: (1) assessing the state of health of the battery, (2) evaluating battery viability for a second life, (3) deciding on a configuration, and (4) reassembling the battery pack in a new configuration, each described in detail in this infosheet. Key challenges to repurposing include a lack of standardization, failure to design for disassembly, difficult access to battery state of health information, lack of safety information, recycled content mandates, and proprietary technology. 

The right to repair infosheet highlights that EV batteries risk having an artificially limited life in the vehicle given significant barriers to repair. Repair of EV batteries is very challenging requiring additional training or specialized service centers, prohibitively costly meaning consumers or insurers opt to scrap rather than repair the battery, and sometimes impossible due to proprietary technology or battery construction. While there are some developing policies on consumer right to repair, much more robust and effective laws are needed to ensure consumer right to repair of EV batteries to counter premature obsolescence and automakers monopolizing repair services. Such a right to repair includes: (i) providing universal and fair access to diagnostic information, tools and repair manuals; (ii) removing firmware, software and hardware barriers preventing consumer repair; (iii) following standard design criteria for core components, and (iv) ensuring fair access to and availability of spare parts.

The EV battery Disassembly infosheet exposes the complex and often destructive process with proprietary tools required to disassemble a typical EV battery with cell-pack-module construction for repair, reuse, repurposing or material recovery. A host of recommendations are outlined ranging from streamlining access to the battery pack and modules with linear design and standardized components, reducing toxic substances for worker safety, universal access to technical manuals and proprietary tools, industry standards for battery refurbishment, and simplifying battery construction for disassembly.

While most attention on EV batteries concerns minerals such as their cobalt, nickel and lithium content, the battery basics infosheet highlights that these materials make up less than half of a typical 1,000 lb battery, meaning that any discussion of material recovery must look at the fate of all 1,000 lbs, and not only those materials that form the economic incentive for recycling. Moreover, the binders or glues critical to EV battery functionality and used throughout the battery structure are manufactured with Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” These binders pose dangerous risks to human and environmental health that must be considered in battery end-of-life, and fire-safe design alternatives must be prioritized.