Tesla starts battery recycling in China

US electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla has started a battery recycling service, saying that its batteries can be 100pc recycled.

Tesla said it will make every effort to extend the life of each battery pack before scrapping and recycling them. The company's service centres around the world can handle any batteries that no longer meet customer needs, it said.

Chief executive Elon Musk has said previously that the cost of changing a battery pack will be around $3,000-7,000/unit, considering the current driving range of Tesla's power battery is 300,000-500,000km.

Battery recycling is a hot topic in the new energy vehicle (NEV) and power battery sector, with both carmakers and governments giving it a lot of attention. China's eastern coastal province of Shandong announced in June that it will use NEV taxes and subsidies to promote power battery recycling.

Around 15mn t of spent lithium-ion batteries will be discarded in 2020-30, according to estimates from Australian resources and project development Neometals and Germany's SMS Group, creating significant disposal issues around the world. The increasing adoption of EVs and falls in battery costs to attract mass market buying will impact the need for more recycling, the firms said.

Tesla produced 82,272 vehicles in the second quarter, a fall of 5pc from 87,048 a year earlier and down by 20pc from 102,672 in January-March amid lockdown measures. But deliveries held firm and profits rose.

Tesla is scheduled to complete construction of the second phase of its Shanghai Gigafactory in November and start deliveries of its Model Y in the first quarter of 2021, according to market participants.

The firm's EVs are mainly equipped with nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) ternary batteries, whose main feedstocks are nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium hydroxide. Tesla is also expected to use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, whose main raw material is lithium carbonate.

Argus assessed prices for 56.5pc grade lithium hydroxide and 99.5pc grade carbonate at 47,000-52,000 yuan/t ($6,880-7,612/t) ex-works and Yn37,000-42,000/t ex-works respectively on 3 September, flat from 1 September.

Prices for 99.8pc grade cobalt metal were assessed at Yn265-285/kg ex-works on 3 September, unchanged since 18 August. The range of nickel sulphate prices was at Yn27,000-32,000/t ex-works, up by Yn1,000/t from the low end of the 27 August range.