According to a study, the development of battery recycling in the EU will cost around €9 billion by 2035, but it will be worth it: after a long dry spell, e-car battery recycling in Europe will be “a profitable and sustainable business even before 2035” , says Jörn Neuhausen of management consultancy PwC.
“Recycled material could account for up to 30 percent of the lithium, nickel and cobalt needed for battery cell production by 2035,” continues Neunhausen. The general increase in electrification and increasing battery production for electric cars will boost the recycling market in Europe, says Achim Kampker, professor at RWTH Aachen University. In the coming years, waste from the growing gigafactories in particular would be recycled and there would still be overcapacity in the recycling plants. However, the market will probably turn around from 2030, when the first large numbers of e-cars will be phased out.
From then on, the recycling market will run at full speed. According to the study, this requires investments of more than 2.2 billion euros for the annual processing of around 570,000 tons of battery material. “In order to be able to process all recyclable materials from 2035, market parties will have to spend another seven billion euros on their recycling capacity,” says Kampker.
“Profitable and sustainable before 2035”
Due to the high investment costs, the current structure of the value chain will develop in the direction of large recycling centres. However, the combination of high material volume and low recycling costs will create an ideal market environment for the battery industry. “Battery recycling will be a profitable and sustainable business in Europe before 2035,” said Neuhausen.
South Korea and China are pioneers in battery recycling with their 2013 guidelines to recycle about 90 percent of batteries. With its revised battery regulation, the EU now specifies minimum proportions of recovered raw materials such as cobalt, lead and lithium in new batteries.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
