merrily , the solvent is yes – the battery that power electric cars ( and hybrids , for that matter ) can be recycled . For decades , the few galvanizing vehicle that were on the road were powered by lead - Elvis barrage . The late models , with their lightsome weight and longer range , uselithium - ion barrage fire , just like laptops and cell phones . In either case , the batteries that power electric cars can be recycled .
In the vitrine of the older - technologylead - Elvis batteries , 96 percent of the materials in the battery – including the nasty lead – is convalesce . To compare , only 38 percent of the textile in glass bottle is recovered in the recycling cognitive operation . They can also be recharge and reuse before being recycled . Hybrid carscurrently on the road , like the Toyota Prius , use nickel metallic element hydride batteries , which can be dismantled and recycled in much the same way .
When the battery packs in a lithium - ion - powered fomite are deemed too worn out for driving , they still have up to 80 pct of their bursting charge leave behind . So before they ever get to a recycling center , these barrage fire are used to prop up the grid , especially alongside get-up-and-go source that may not be quite as unfaltering , like wind orsolar power . The batteries can store power to facilitate the flow of electricity persist on an even keel rather than ebb and flow with the weather .
Since Li - ion barrage fire - powered cars are just now coming to the mass market , the recycling centers that can repossess their components are still in their babyhood , too . Toxco , a self-aggrandising lead - acid battery recycler , is set to start the first Li - ion battery recycling plant in the U.S. Companies like Tesla Motors , which has had Li - power electric sport car on the route for a mates of years now , already sends its spent electric battery to Toxco ’s current facilities for recycling .
When lithium - ion bombardment reach arecyclingplant , there are two mode to pulverize them . If they are completely without a guardianship , they ’re simply tear up so that the metal components , like copper and steel , can be well class out . If the batteries could still possibly have a electric charge , though , they ’re frozen in liquid atomic number 7 and smashed to frozen bits ( coolheaded ! ) . The swimming nitrogen is so cold , the batteries ca n’t react , so the shattering is safe . And belike fun . Then the metals are separated out for reuse .
