Automakers, Battery Producers Entering Waste Battery Market
Automakers and battery manufacturers are entering the waste battery market one after another. This is to procure lithium, cobalt, nickel, and the like on their own without being affected by raw material price fluctuations. In addition, the market size itself is increasing fast.
LG Energy Solution recently announced that it would produce positive electrode materials from nickel and cobalt extracted by selling waste batteries to recycling companies. It already signed an agreement to that end with Li-Cycle, a North American company in the industry.
SK Innovation is planning to set up a subsidiary in the industry. Its battery recycling facilities in South Korea are scheduled to be put into trial operation early next year and commercial operation in 2025. It is going to build the same facilities abroad, too. Samsung SDI entered the market by investing in battery recycling company PmGrow. Hyundai Motor Company is working on reused battery-based energy storage systems with UL. Kia and SK Innovation recently concluded an agreement for battery recycling.
Tesla unveiled its battery recycling system lately. The company has worked on the system since 2016 and up to 92 percent of the materials of waste batteries can be collected using the system. In addition, it built a plant where up to 3,600 battery packs can be recycled a year.
Reuse of waste batteries for the purpose of energy storage is also developing fast along with waste battery recycling for electric vehicles. Nissan is collecting and renovating lithium-ion batteries for energy storage system supply. It already completed its research on using the batteries for renewable energy supply to households and buildings.
Toyota and Tokyo Electric Power Company signed an agreement in May this year in order to utilize waste hybrid and electric vehicle batteries for the purpose of energy storage. Their battery reuse technology is scheduled to be commercialized by March next year. Hyundai Motor Company and OCI are working on battery reuse for solar power generation.
According to market research firm SNE Research, the global waste battery market is expected to grow from 400 billion won to 87 trillion won from 2020 to 2040 and the amount of waste electric vehicle batteries is likely to soar in the 2030s in that those batteries have a service life of 8 to 10 years. Raw material extraction from those batteries is still unprofitable and companies capable of extracting more and faster are likely to lead the market down the road.