Motion pulse free pack full#

One result is stockpiling batteries in the hopes that recycling costs will eventually fall or that the value of the batteries will rise. вЂњItвЂ™s a misery.вЂќД¬loser to home, other EV batteries may вЂњleakвЂќ into shadowy corners of the domestic auto industry, with players that donвЂ™t have the money or desire to deal with waste. вЂњWe have evidence from the e-waste trade that there can be bad versions of recycling,вЂќ Kendall says, pointing to places like India and Southeast Asia. But it raises the question of whether these places are prepared for safe and environmentally sound recycling when the vehicles die. Sending used cars abroad is an important way of making electric vehicles accessible to poorer countries, Melin notes. It shouldnвЂ™t be a horror stream.вЂќДЄlissa Kendall, professor of civil and environmental engineering, UC Davis вЂњWe have to control these end-of-life batteries. But recycling them responsibly is simply less profitable. Even cobalt-free batteries are toxic and a fire danger, though they still contain plenty of valuable materials, like lithium and nickel. ThatвЂ™s fantasy economics,вЂќ says Leo Raudys, CEO of Call2Recycle, a nonprofit that handles recycling logistics for dead batteries. вЂњRecycling is not going to be profitable for everybody. For the same reason, many battery makers hope to eliminate it from their chemistries soon, threatening to make the value proposition for recyclers even harder. Currently, the only battery material that can be recycled profitably is cobalt, because itвЂ™s just that rare and expensive. In all, the journey is so labor- and resource-intensive that it generally exceeds the costs of digging up new materials from the ground. Handling lithium-ion batteries is so demanding that dealerships have chosen to ship an entire 4,000-pound damaged vehicle to Oklahoma City, just so SNT can extract and repair or recycle the 1,000-pound battery inside. EV battery packs are so massive they need to be shipped by truck ( not airplane) in specially designed cases, often across vast distances, to reach centralized recycling facilities. About 40 percent of the overall cost of recycling, according to one recent study, is transportation.

The harder part is getting dead batteries to those facilities from wherever they met their demise. The recycling process typically involves shredding batteries, then breaking them down further with heat or chemicals at dedicated facilities. вЂњPeople donвЂ™t know the risks involved.вЂќД®xtracting the valuable materials from an EV battery is difficult and expensive. вЂњThe voltages in these batteries are lethal,вЂќ says Latham, who trains salvagers just getting started with EVs. Lithium-ion battery packs are, by contrast, heavy machines with dozens of components and radically different designs depending on their manufacturer. More than 95 percent of them are recycled today because consumers can claim deposits when they return the batteries, and they are relatively simple to dismantle. That includes the lead-acid batteries that start gas-powered cars.

Dismantlers-including those that fly under the radar of regulators-make a fine art of wringing every penny from a dead car, explains Andy Latham, CEO of Salvage Wire, an auto recycling consultancy in the UK. TodayвЂ™s system mostly works because scrap metal has value and thereвЂ™s a healthy market for conventional auto parts. вЂњThese vehicles go to auction and anybody can grab them,вЂќ Kendall says. When it finally dies, it falls into a globe-spanning network of auctioneers, dismantlers, and scrap yards that try to dispose of cars as profitably as possible. Cars are typically globe-trotters the average vehicle may have three to four owners and cross international borders in its lifetime. One thing appears certain: The current way of dealing with cars past their prime wonвЂ™t cut it. Spiers New Technologies takes flawed batteries and transports, tests, and-when possible-disassembles, fixes, and refurbishes them. Spiers turned that opening into a business that now handles the logistics of dead and dying EV batteries from every major carmaker that sells in the US, except Tesla. His relationship with GM had begun 11 years earlier, when he buttonholed the companyвЂ™s head of development for an earlier electric vehicle, the Volt, about GMвЂ™s plan for the batteries when they broke or died. Spiers was a natural person to call for help. When taken apart for repairs, they can be dangerous, and incorrect handling can lead to noxious fumes and fires. It contains hundreds of battery cells that are delicate and finicky.

Motion pulse free pack full#

Unlike the toaster-oven-sized lead-acid batteries inside most gas-powered vehicles, the lithium-ion battery pack inside the Bolt runs the full wheelbase of the car and weighs 960 pounds. Fixing them would be a massive operation. Now the automaker was expanding the recall to all 141,000 Bolts sold worldwide since 2017.