Why is the scrapped volume of electric vehicle batteries so much higher than predicted?

Recently, Tesla issued an announcement stating that it "will launch battery recycling services in China." Tesla also said, “For environmental protection and business considerations, it is a good choice to effectively and correctly extend battery life compared to battery recycling. Therefore, Tesla is getting scrapped consumer-grade batteries. Before the batteries are disposed of, they will first try to extend the battery life, and this service is open to any user. The company also emphasizes that these scrapped batteries are not sent to landfill and can be 100% recycled."

Due to Tesla's popularity in China, this move of battery recycling services has once again aroused the new energy vehicle market's attention to downstream battery recycling. However, Tesla is not the first mover among new energy vehicle companies. In 2016, BAIC It was the first to propose the battery replacement business and released the "Optimus Prime Project" in November 2017: By 2022, the Optimus Prime Project is expected to invest 10 billion yuan to build 3,000 optical storage power swap stations nationwide, with a total of There are 500,000 electric vehicles, and the utilization of secondary energy storage batteries exceeds 5Gwh.

Although it seems that Project Optimus Prime is progressing slowly at present, there is no doubt that domestic new energy vehicle companies also have keen foresight when it comes to battery recycling issues.

According to the global market research organization ReportLinker, the global battery recycling market is expected to grow by US$5.77 billion (approximately RMB 40.4 billion) from 2020 to 2024, with an average annual compound growth rate of 9%. In addition, the International Energy Agency also predicts that the global lithium-ion battery recycling market will grow to 20 billion euros (approximately RMB 164.8 billion) in 2030.

In this industrial chain, China is a crucial market. The popularization and promotion of a large number of pure electric models means that car companies and battery manufacturers have a heavier responsibility. Whether it is domestic or foreign markets, a complete and reasonable battery recycling system is a key component in the development of new energy vehicles. A virtuous cycle is the most precious, and this path must be followed well.