Can the battery cabinet be reused

After primary use in a vehicle, potential end of life pathways for used electric vehicle batteries include reuse, or repurposing (“second life”), materials recovery (recycling), and disposal. Regardless of whether batteries are reused, they will eventually need to be recycled or disposed.

Reuse also extends the lifetime of batteries, and potentially displaces some new batteries from stationary applications, all of which reduces the overall impacts of battery production. In some cases, batteries could be refurbished for use directly in another vehicle, potentially extending the useful life of many vehicle systems.

Hence, batteries retaining between 80-85% of their original capacity are collected. Battery modules found to have similar power and life are sorted out and re-assembled in new “repurposed” battery packs, ready for stationary usage , such as utility-scale grid, building and telecommunication tower storage.

One key barrier for reuse has been the continually improving economics and performance of new batteries. The price of new batteries fell over an order of magnitude while performance has improved, effectively pricing out used batteries from some applications.

Regardless of whether batteries are reused, they will eventually need to be recycled or disposed. Understanding the opportunities and barriers to recycling is critical to reduce environmental impacts from improper disposal, and to account for benefits from recovered materials and avoided mining of virgin resources.

In about 2 years, the recycling of lithium batteries which still in 2016 was claimed in Europe to lack economic viability as “only 3% of the material mix in batteries is made of lithium”, became profitable and convenient.