[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by shaffe

The thing I worry about with EV's besides them being total eye sores and the infrastructure not being totally there. What happens to all those old batteries? Isn't it extremely expensive to recycle them?

There are a number of initiatives in place.

1. Since automotive lithium ion batteries have a lot of their capacity locked in reserve, when they are no longer suitable for in-vehicle use, they still have plenty of life left in them, especially for energy storage and release. GM has entered into an agreement with a power supplier who will use decommissioned car batteries to build energy storage banks that will then provide 100% of operating power to several GM plants. I really need to find the article I originally read on this, because it’s come up in conversation about half a dozen times in the past couple weeks.
2. Several companies are working on battery pack remanufacturing. They would take replaced battery packs, identify damaged/dead cells, and replace them. The remanufacturing packs would then be salable as lower cost post warranty replacements. Same principle as remanufactured engine and transmissions. The replaced cells could then be harvested for precious metals and other reclaimable materials that can be sold back into the manufacturing processes.
3. Power companies are already using decommissioned battery packs as energy storage banks for wind farms and solar farms. Similar to point #1 on this list.