China could supply EV manufacturing boom with recycled EVs

AI 中文解读

电动车回收迎来新角色：中国研究预测，到2050年前后，报废电动车上的电池和电机材料，可能成为中国制造新车的主要“矿源”。为什么重要？因为电动车技术更新太快，等一辆车报废，电池配方可能早就换代，回收旧电池的经济价值往往不高。但南京大学领衔的研究团队建模发现，在中国，从锂、钴、镍到稀土磁铁元素，回收材料的供给量将在未来几十年逐渐追上并主导生产需求。通俗讲，就是以后造新电动车的原料，可能更多来自拆解老车，而不是纯靠挖矿。对普通人来说，这意味着电动车产业对进口矿产的依赖会下降，供应链更稳，长期看有助于稳定车价。同时，旧车不再只是“铁皮废品”，而是宝贵的城市矿山，回收利用的价值被重新定义，环保意义也更实在。

While recycling is a mathematically obvious response to the finite, non-renewable nature of many resources, the economic math is often challenging. For many materials, it can be hard to compete with virgin materials on a cost basis. Fast-moving technologies like electric vehicles throw in an added complication: By the time a car is scrapped, the industry may have moved on to a different battery chemistry. That reduces the value of recycling the car’s battery back into the production chain. Still, a study led by Xin Xiong at Nanjing University finds that in China, recycling could become the dominant source of many key materials needed to manufacture EV components over the coming decades. Modeling manufacturing needs The researchers set out to model how the supply of recycled materials compares to manufacturing demand in China between 2010 and 2050. It covers materials relevant to batteries across hybrid, battery-electric, and even fuel-cell vehicles (lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, phosphorus, sodium, sulfur, and graphite), as well as several critical elements used in electric motors (copper, neodymium, dysprosium, samarium, and cerium).Read full article Comments