Life-prolonging measures

Unlike many industrial products, traction batteries are perceived from a broader perspective: Aside from central aspects of the pre-utilization stage such as raw material mining and environmental as well as social manufacturing conditions, the post-utilization stage is of particular importance, i.e., second life and, above all, recycling.

The first step in post-utilization – when the residual capacity of a battery is no longer deemed to be adequate for driving a vehicle – is the battery’s use as a stationary energy storage system, for instance to store electricity from solar collectors or wind turbines or as a buffer battery for fast-charging stations. Traction batteries could be used for another ten to twelve years in such a second life. The demand exists because there are companies urgently looking for discarded batteries.

But the useful life of a traction battery can also be prolonged in other ways. Currently, complete batteries are still being disposed of, but there are companies that have begun to focus on refurbishing batteries, i.e., a general rebuild where individual weak or defective battery cells are replaced by other second-hand cells enabling longer use of the traction battery.

Because a traction battery contains a lot of usable materials it’s deemed to be sure to be recycled. Even at this juncture – before a large number of end-of-life traction batteries has been accumulated – there are several businesses just waiting to access this secondary source of raw materials and planning to market the materials that have been recovered in the recycling process.