Lifespan of the Battery
The life of a battery goes well beyond its use within an electric vehicle. At the end of its full lifespan, its content will be recycled, recovered and reused in a circular economy.
First Life: Traction Battery for EV
The useful life of an electric vehicle's traction battery is at least 10 to 15 years, depending on operating conditions. Despite some degradation during this period, vehicle performance remains unaffected. Control systems protect the battery to ensure it lasts beyond the manufacturer's warranty.
Second Life: Stationary Battery
Lithium-ion batteries are valuable, high-performance energy accumulators. Once their useful life as traction batteries is over, they are increasingly reused as stationary batteries to store renewable energy (solar and wind power). Several companies, including the car manufacturers themselves, use "old" electric vehicle batteries in this way. This second life can last from 10 to 20 years, depending on the context.
Batteries from vehicles that have been involved in accidents (along with engines and other parts) are also in high demand to extend the life of vehicles and even to electrify gasoline-powered vehicles ("retrofit").
Find out more about the reusing of EV batteries as stationary accumulators in this report from Radio-Canada.
End of Life: Materials Recycling
The battery of an electric vehicle is not considered waste. The materials it contains can be recycled. In Québec, Lithion Technologies recovers 95% of a battery's materials through its hydrometallurgy technology. Lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, graphite, copper and aluminum... and even organic solvents are recovered. The result: quality materials that can go right back into the production of new batteries.
Through recycling, electric vehicles become an "urban mine" that reduces the need to extract new minerals from the Earth. Moreover, car manufacturers are highly interested in this concept, which will enable them to secure their supply of strategic minerals.
Explore this topic through our Christine Beaulieu's interview with Benoît Couture, Founder of Recyclage Lithion.
For more information (French only)
- Recycling batteries and reducing their ecological footprint (recorded webinar)
- The many lives of an electric vehicle battery (news article)
- Myth or Reality: electric vehicle batteries degrade rapidly?
- Myth or Reality: electric vehicle batteries can't be recycled?
- Demystifying electric vehicle batteries (video capsule)
