Electric vehicle battery is in the dilemma of secondary utilization: the technology is feasible, but the old battery is rare.
CTOnews.com, June 26 (Xinhua) at present, almost all automakers around the world are promoting the battery reuse plan for electric vehicles, which makes people believe that this solution will be another example of circular economy. However, Reuters recently wrote an analysis that the secondary use of batteries in electric vehicles is technically feasible, but the old batteries themselves are difficult to obtain.
"manufacturers always default that electric car batteries can only last for eight to 10 years, and then car owners will replace them," said Hans Eric Melin, founder of CES, a consulting firm that tracks the number and price of batteries in ▲. "but this assumption is actually wrong."
The current energy storage scheme for secondary utilization is simple and quite idealistic: in theory, as the battery capacity of electric vehicles drops to less than 80% Rose 85% after eight to 10 years of use, they can be reused to power buildings or connect to the home grid as energy storage devices to help users reduce peak electricity consumption.
Circular economy investors who believe in this program have provided about $1 billion (CTOnews.com Note: about 7.2 billion yuan) to more than 50 start-ups around the world. In addition, many automakers, such as Mercedes-Benz and Nissan, have set up their own battery reuse businesses.
The problem with this scheme, however, is not that it is technically infeasible, but that there is a shortage of old batteries, and the problem shows no sign of abating.
The average lifespan of fossil fuel cars on US roads is rising to a record 12.5 years, according to S & P, which means many car owners are reluctant to change cars for a variety of reasons. By analogy, the owners of many electric vehicles will choose to continue driving even if the battery runs out of gas and the lights run out.
"the 80 per cent battery capacity threshold is a random number and does not reflect the actual use of electric vehicles," said CES's Melin. Elmar Zimmerling, automotive business development manager at Fenecon, a German secondary battery start-up, also claims that there is "almost no market for secondary batteries" because electric cars made a decade ago are still in use.
However, the prospect of demand for old batteries is still considerable. The Paris-based International Energy Agency had previously estimated that global grid storage battery capacity could increase from 16 gigawatt hours at the end of 2021 to 680 gigawatt hours by 2030. The UK alone spends about 1 billion pounds a year (currently about 9.16 billion yuan) to shut down wind farms when the grid does not need electricity-there is no way to store electricity because of battery shortages. But when there is a shortage of electricity, Britain often has to buy electricity from Europe.
Smartville, an American startup, has found a solution to buy batteries from electric cars scrapped by insurance companies. Because insurance companies are unable to assess the extent of damage to electric car batteries, these batteries, which usually still have almost 100% capacity, are often scrapped along with the car itself. The company CEO predicts that more than 1 gigawatt-hour of recycled batteries will enter the US market each year by 2026.
