Written evidence from CarTakeBack.com (ELV0009)

End of life disposal of EVs

26. What options are there for consumers for end-of-life management of batteries and EVs, and what impact does this have on consumer attitudes towards buying an EV?

Currently there are several independent companies who will arrange to buy end of life EVs (including the batteries) for salvage, such as CarTakeBack, Copart, Synetiq, Silverlake etc., and these vehicles currently have significant salvage value for all components including the batteries, so consumers are able to realise value from their salvageable end of life EVs privately.

For end of life EVs which are not salvageable, these are covered by the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ OEMs have for ensuring both vehicle and battery are taken back free of charge and recycled in line with the law at their end of life. The relevant Regulations are the End of Life Vehicle Regulations 2003 and the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009.

Consumer attitudes (and behaviour) could be influenced by improved education for OEM dealership staff and also a factual public information campaign to counteract often negative (and inaccurate) reports in the media attempting to discredit EVs and their environmental credentials.

27. What are the current regulations and responsibilities of disposal and recycling for EVs, and how effective are they? How much of the battery can be recycled from a technical standpoint, and how much of that is economically feasible?

As above, all OEMs have ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ for ensuring both vehicle and battery are taken back free of charge and recycled in line with the law at their end of life under the End of Life Vehicle Regulations 2003 and the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009. These are generally effective when consumers and businesses are made aware of them, and most OEMs take their responsibilities seriously although more stringent enforcement would perhaps be helpful.

Currently, UK based companies such as Ecobat and RS Bruce are able to process li-ion battery cells into ‘black mass’ material, which can then be processed further by downstream processors in order to extract the valuable materials necessary for the manufacture of new batteries. Currently approximately 57.7% of a li-ion battery can be recycled, although this is continually improving and will need to should UK Gov introduce similar standards to those proposed by the EU in their redraft of the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations.

This operation is gradually starting to bear fruit, and as end of life li-ion battery volumes increase to levels which make resale of the recycled materials viable there are more companies gearing up to enter this arena, which is essential in order to support the development of a domestic li-ion battery manufacturing industry within the UK.

28. Is there a risk that the residual value of EVs may be lower than the value of the EV as a source of recoverable critical minerals, and how might this effect the flow of EVs into the second-hand market?

No. Based on experience of ‘conventional’ Internal Combustion Engine vehicles, this is very unlikely to happen, for the following reasons:

1. EVs and their batteries have far outperformed expectations, particularly in the UK with its milder climate and lower average journey distance than many markets, and as owners upgrade to more advanced models as they enter the market there will be a burgeoning demand for these cheaper second-hand (but still serviceable) EVs with the ‘non-early adopter’ demographic. This is likely to be driven by increasing costs of fossil fuels and also legislation, along with an increase in ‘ULEZ’ schemes.
2. Based on known volumes of EVs currently on UK roads (and growing exponentially) which will require repair and replacement of components as they age, allied with the ex-insurance vehicle salvage and repair companies continually developing expertise in repairing these vehicles, we can expect that components of salvageable end of life vehicles (including serviceable batteries) will retain high residual values in the salvage industry.