The EU parliament and council have set new (although still provisional) laws on battery reclamation and recycling that will significantly impact electric cars.
Regulating the life cycle of batteries
The new rules, according to the EU Council, "will cover the entire battery life cycle, from design to end-of-life and apply to all types of batteries sold in the EU: portable batteries, SLI batteries (supplying power for starting, lighting or ignition of vehicles), light means of transport (LMT) batteries (providing power for the traction to wheeled vehicles such as electric scooters and bikes), electric vehicle (EV) batteries and industrial batteries."
Under the new regulations, a 'carbon footprint declaration' will be mandatory for all batteries with an energy capacity greater than 2kWh - that will cover pretty much any transport battery from an e-scooter to a hybrid car to a fully-electric car.
Batteries of all types will have to carry a QR code that provides "information related to their capacity, performance, durability, chemical composition, as well as the "separate collection" symbol." Larger batteries, those above 2kWh, will have to have a "digital battery passport", including information on the battery model and information specific to the individual battery and its use. As part of that, battery manufacturers will have to provide a report on each battery's carbon footprint, which will be used to set a maximum CO2 limit for batteries that could apply as early as July 2027.
Address social and environmental risks
Any company above SME size that wants to sell a battery in the EU will have to comply with a new "due diligence policy" which the EU wants to "address the social and environmental risks linked to sourcing, processing and trading raw materials and secondary raw materials."
As part of that, there will be new targets for collecting and reclaiming used batteries. For EVs and hybrid car batteries, those targets will be 51 per cent by 2028 and 61 per cent by 2031. It's arguable that those targets are quite soft and that the car industry - hungry for recycled battery materials - will actually exceed them anyway.
That goes double thanks to the new regulations because as far as the composition of batteries goes, the new regulations will lay down strict targets for the use of recycled materials, which will mean minimum levels of recovered cobalt (16 per cent), lead (85 per cent), lithium (6 per cent) and nickel (6 per cent) from manufacturing and consumer waste must be reused in new batteries. There will also be minimum standards for the recycling and reclamation of specific materials used in batteries: from 2027, battery-makers will need to recover 90 per cent of nickel and cobalt used, rising to 95 per cent in 2031. They would also need to recover 50 per cent of lithium used in 2027, rising to 80 per cent in 2031.
The regulations say all batteries must be collected free of charge to the end-user, "regardless of their nature, chemical composition, condition, brand or origin." Again, that is possibly behind the curve as far as the car industry is concerned - BMW, for one, has already called for financial incentives for individuals to recycle their cars, and especially the batteries from those cars, at the end of their useful lives to ensure that there is a fresh supply of recyclable battery materials.
Circular economy legislation
Achille Variati (from the Italian Partito Democratico, who is the appointed representative for this new legislation) said: "For the first time, we have circular economy legislation that covers the entire life cycle of a product - this approach is good for both the environment and the economy. We agreed on measures that greatly benefit consumers: batteries will be well-functioning, safer and easier to remove. Our overall aim is to build a stronger EU recycling industry, particularly for lithium, and a competitive industrial sector as a whole, which is crucial in the coming decades for our continent's energy transition and strategic autonomy. These measures could become a benchmark for the entire global battery market."
The new regulations have been welcomed by environmental think-tank and pressure group Transport & Environment (T&E). Alex Keynes, clean vehicles manager at T&E, said: "Batteries are already far more sustainable than burning oil in our cars, but they can be much better. New rules on carbon footprint, recycling and due diligence checks will mean batteries sold in Europe are the most sustainable globally, setting the standard for the rest of the world. The law helps even the playing field between Europe's battery industry and imports which are subject to minimal standards. Global producers can invest in cleaner production processes and new recycling capacity in Europe knowing they will have a guaranteed market for green batteries here."