Still good news
In 2022, significantly fewer used car batteries were eligible for a second life than a year earlier. The recycling percentage is also lower. That seems sad, but according to Auto Recycling Nederland it is largely the result of a favorable development.
Auto Recycling Netherlands (ARN) takes care of the recycling of battery packs from electric cars for a large number of car importers. In 2022, this resulted in 112,617 kilos of batteries for this organization, of which 23 percent could be used for, for example, ‘stationary’ energy storage, as is done at the Johan Cruijff Arena. This represents a significant decrease compared to 2021, when 53 percent of the batteries supplied were still eligible for reuse in this way.
As a result of this decrease, the total recycling percentage of batteries and parts is also much lower. In 2022, that percentage at ARN was 69 percent, compared to 83 in 2021. However, ARN also has good news. To start with, that 69 percent is still well above the legal minimum requirement of 50 percent. Moreover, the fact that fewer batteries are directly reused has a very important reason: individual cells are replaced more often instead of complete battery packs. This is more sustainable and a lot cheaper for the owner of the car in question, but also means that fewer batteries are used as an energy buffer. After all, this is less easy to achieve with a separate cell than with a complete package. Although the figures suggest bad news, in practice this does not seem to be so bad.
ARN expects a huge increase in the number of batteries supplied over the next three to five years. The reason is obvious: more and more EVs are experiencing problems with the battery pack due to age or mileage, which will therefore have to be completely or – apparently increasingly often – partially replaced.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl