Electric Cars: What Happens To Dead Batteries?

Electric vehicles are a positive step in the road to reducing carbon emissions as they are powered by renewable energy. There’s no doubt that the number of EVs on the road is rapidly increasing.

The UK Government has pledged to ban the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles - now by 2035 - in the interest of creating a greener planet.  But what happens to car batteries once they can no longer serve their purpose?

Lifespan  

An EV battery is packed full of around 5,000 and 9,000 cells, gently stacked on top of each other. Due to the vast amount of cells, many manufacturers put their confidence in the battery’s road usage and guarantee that the batteries will maintain 70% of their capacity for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first for you. In many cases EV batteries will outlive the vehicles to which they are fitted and the evolution of EVs is ever-growing and improving. It’s worth noting that these figures will improve as the technology evolves. You must also keep in mind that in some circumstances individual defective cells may be replaced to extend its lifespan further.

Preserve

Here are some tips which can prolong your battery life:

• Charging your electric vehicle to 80% will leave it running more efficiently.

• Don’t allow your vehicle’s battery drop to below 20%.

• Using DC rapid charging stations frequently will deplete the battery quicker.

• Most charging stations will automatically stop at 100%, but overcharging your vehicle will also reduce its lifespan.

Repurpose

Once your vehicle’s battery performance hits 70% or less, it’s time to repurpose your battery. Commonly known at the battery pack’s ‘second life’, once removed from the vehicle they can be reused in a number of different ways. The obvious one is energy storage in your home but larger scale operations use batteries to energise streets. In a few years, there will be many more batteries heading into their second life, meaning eventually we could be powering huge projects with these repurposed batteries.

Recycle

EV batteries contain recyclable materials; cobalt, lithium salts, stainless steel, copper, aluminium and plastic. Sustainability is extremely important to Mercedes-Benz AG and is an integral part of their corporate strategy. Mercedes-Benz is equally focused on recycling and with a view to the future return of lithium-ion battery systems from Mercedes-EQ vehicles, the company is therefore now expanding its global battery recycling strategy. Mercedes-Benz is starting to build its own battery recycling plant in Germany, based on hydrometallurgy.

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