EV BATTERY BENEFITS, CHALLENGES, & TRENDS August 2020
As the world shifts to address problems of climate change and air pollution, the transportation industry is moving quickly to find alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles. Decreased dependence on fluctuating oil prices, fewer emissions, and an all-around smoother ride has increased demand for electric vehicles (EVs). EVs have lower emissions, making them better for public health and the environment, and also provide increased economic opportunities.
are powered by a lithium-ion battery, which has the highest energy density, making it the most powerful option. It is also the cheapest battery with no required active maintenance.
Nearly 18 million EVs are expected on U.S. roads by 2030, compared to one million at the end of 2018. EVs can be powered by several types of batteries, such as solid-state, aluminum-ion, or lithium-ion. The battery is the most important, controversial, and expensive part of an EV. The battery determines a vehicle’s range, power, and cost. Lowering the cost of a battery is the most effective way to lower the overall costs of EVs and allow them to reach cost parity with gasoline-powered vehicles. Most of today’s EVs
A bigger challenge is finding safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly ways to keep EV batteries out of landfills as more batteries enter the market through consumer demand.
Demand for lithium, which is in limited supply across the world, is expected to increase threefold by 2025. Despite the advantages, lithium-ion batteries cannot support the entirety of the projected demand for EVs.
Examining the strengths and weaknesses of lithium-ion batteries, as well as understanding alternative battery options can support local and state decision-makers, businesses, sustainability directors, and others in evaluating cleaner, more
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sustainable and affordable options for their communities.
Lithium-Ion Batteries
Battery Production Most of the world’s EV battery supply is manufactured in Asia. The top five battery companies are China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), Japan’s Panasonic Corporation, China’s BYD, South Korea’s LG Chem LTD, and South Korean’s Samsung SDI. Less than 3% of the global demand for EV batteries is supplied by companies outside of China, Japan, or Korea. Even battery manufacturers that originate in countries outside of these three eventually tend to move to these countries, because of existing infrastructure and low permitting costs. Despite this geographic concentration of battery production, car manufacturers, policy makers, and potential battery suppliers have powerful economic and strategic incentives to strengthen local battery production. In areas of high demand, such as Europe and the United States, dependence on Asian battery manufacturers puts auto manufacturers at a disadvantage with competitors that are closer and better able to access battery supply. The emergence and spread of COVID-19 has negatively influenced the battery supply chain, decreasing supply and increasing prices, and causing logistical and production delays. In February 2020 alone, the price for lithium hydroxide increased by more than 3%. With the supply chain located far from consumers, these complications will further affect battery production oversight.
Source: Let’s Talk Science
The most popular type of electric vehicle battery is made of lithium-ion. In this type of battery, the lithium flows between the anode and the cathode, which generates charge. In 1980, the American physicist John Goodenough invented the current lithium battery model in which the lithium travels from one electrode to another as a positive ion. This was a groundbreaking invention, as lithium is very light and also has a large electrochemical potential. This innovation meant this new battery could be extremely powerful while staying compact, which is central to increasing an EV’s range and performance. Lithium-ion has a low self-discharge rate, which allows the battery to retain maximum stored energy for many years. Unlike other battery alternatives, lithium-ion batteries do not require any active maintenance, which reduces consumer cost. Weaknesses of Lithium-Ion Batteries Despite its many strengths, lithium-ion batteries are far from the perfect choice for EVs. They are expensive to build and install relative to a gasoline powered engine. Because of the lithium and cobalt in the battery, lithium-ion production costs are still 40% higher than nickel batteries – one of the main lithium-ion alternatives. Cobalt is also a finite resource, so eventually over-mining will become a problem.
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Cobalt is used in most commercial lithium-ion batteries. It is typically combined with lithium and oxygen to form the cathode. The energy-dense metal is expensive, but it comes at an even higher cost: a long history of human rights violations in areas in which it is mined. More than half of the world’s cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where roughly 100,000 cobalt miners use hand tools to dig deep into the ground with little to no safety measures. There have also been reports of children being forced to work in these mines for as little as $1.50 per day. In a lawsuit against five major tech companies, including Tesla, families of children who died in cobalt mines argued that these companies were complicit in a system of forced labor that eventually caused the deaths or serious injuries of children. Not only is cobalt used in EV batteries, but large tech companies like Apple and Google also use it in their batteries. As the mining of cobalt increases in order to meet growing technology and increasing demand, human rights violations will continue and prices could increase as supply struggles to keep up. EV batteries make up under 20% of the world’s cobalt use; most of the mineral is used for smaller batteries, such as those used in laptops and cell phones. However, all battery manufacturers should begin steering the industry away from unethically mined cobalt. Alternatives to Lithium-Ion Batteries Despite the dominance of lithium-ion batteries in the EV market, researchers and auto manufacturers are looking for alternatives in response to some of the issues in lithium-ion battery production. One alternative on the horizon is solid-state batteries. This battery replaces the liquid or polymer electrolyte with a solid electrolyte. The solid electrolyte allows the battery to retain energy with increased density, which some researchers believe could allow EVs
to have a range of over 500 miles. Because of the increased durability of solid-state batteries, this would also decrease the number of batteries being disposed or recycled. Major automakers like Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen are investing in solidstate battery research, and some believe that solid-state batteries will come to market as early as 2020. There are some doubts about this model, which could limit its commercial success. Solid electrolytes are less conductive than liquid electrolytes. Since conductivity is dependent on temperature, solid-state batteries risk lower performance in cold weather climates. Solidstate batteries are also incredibly expensive. A few manufacturers have developed models that overcome their temperature issues; however, they are far too expensive to appeal to consumers. Another option closely related to lithium-ion is an aluminum-ion battery. The structure of this battery is the same as lithium-ion, except it contains an aluminum anode rather than a lithium anode. Aluminum is the most common metal on Earth with an established industry and recycling infrastructure, which makes the use of aluminum very cost-effective. Some research shows that aluminum-ion could one day have twice the energy density of lithium-ion alternatives. However, the research on aluminum batteries is limited, and there are no options on the market as aluminum-ion batteries have issues overheating and are twice as large as their lithium-ion counterparts. Two other alternatives are nickel metal hydride and lead acid batteries. Neither are powerful enough to fuel all-electric vehicles, but some researchers believe they could get there. Nickel metal hydride batteries are traditionally used in hybrid vehicles. They regulate temperature well, and they degrade at slower rates than lithium-ion. Lead acid batteries are mostly used to supplement
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battery loads in EVs, or in vehicles where speed is not an issue, like golf carts or forklifts. They are still fairly high-powered, inexpensive, and safe. However, both models will require a lot of refining to allow them to power an all-electric vehicle. Because lithium-ion batteries are powerful and cost-effective, there have been efforts to find an alternative to using cobalt and ensure that any cobalt used is mined ethically. Reducing or eliminating cobalt use also lowers overall cost, as it is the most expensive ingredient of an EV battery and its price continues to rise. Tesla’s battery producer, Panasonic Corp, announced a goal to develop an EV battery without using cobalt. They have already produced a battery that significantly reduces cobalt by increasing nickel content while still maintaining thermal stability. Apple and Samsung have joined the Responsible Cobalt Initiative, which pledges to address the environmental and human rights issues associated with using cobalt. Apple has started to purchase cobalt directly from those who mine it to ensure that acceptable safety practices are being followed. The reality is that lithium-ion batteries that contain cobalt are currently the cheapest and most powerful EV battery option on the market. Battery prices are down 85% since 2010, largely due to innovations in lithium-ion batteries. As the demand for EVs grows, it will be difficult to find an alternative that is so cost-effective.
Source: Rocky Mountain Institute
Trends in Batteries Outside of foreign dependence on manufacturers, one of the main issues with batteries is their eventual disposal. Lithium-ion batteries have harmful chemicals that are hazardous to human health and the environment if left in a landfill. Much of the environmental focus on batteries has been on recycling or re-use of batteries in their second life. EV batteries tend to last about ten years before they need to be replaced. Around that point, they have around 70% of their original power potential, which is not enough to reliably run a vehicle. However, this is still enough power to be used for other energy needs. More than 1 million EVs were sold in 2017. Estimates show that those vehicles alone will result in 250,000 tons of discarded battery packs – most of which are made with lithium-ion. In the waste management world, reuse is considered superior to recycling. Because there is so much value in a lithium-ion battery, it should be repurposed to optimize material use and lifecycle impacts. Profitable second use applications can provide a revenue stream that can offset the cost for the eventual recycling of the battery. One of the major trends in reuse is repurposing batteries to provide energy storage and grid services. As solar power becomes more popular, using old EV batteries for battery storage is becoming a more common solution to address energy storage. Lithium-ion car and bus batteries can collect and discharge electricity for another seven to 10 years after being taken out of an EV. Researchers at UC Davis demonstrated this capability by repurposing 15 Nissan Leaf batteries to act as battery storage for a solar array that powers a brewery, winery, and food processing complex. The battery packs collect excess power from the 200 kW solar array and discharge in the evening and at night to offset the facility’s energy use.
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dips below 70-80%, the battery is no longer strong enough to power a vehicle. Instead of disposing of the battery, it can still be used for other power purposes until it is eventually recycled. Despite these options, many EV owners will purchase a new vehicle and dispose of the parts of their old model instead of recycling them. In response, companies and regulators have begun establishing second life of recycling policies to discourage the immediate disposal of EV batteries. Source: Bloomberg
Even after use and reuse of a battery, eventual disposal of a battery is inevitable. Unfortunately, recycling batteries is a costly process. It requires a high temperature melting and extraction process, similar to processes used in mining. Battery recycling typically occurs in large facilities based in Asia. These plants are expensive to build and maintain, and require sophisticated equipment to neutralize the emissions generated by the recycling process. These plants also lack the capability to recover all valuable battery materials. Recycling does have potential benefits for the battery industry. Materials like cobalt are costly and rare, and recycling processes can extract components from old batteries to be used to make new ones, lowering manufacturing costs. Lithium-ion batteries are compact and complex devices without a uniform size or structure, and are not designed to be disassembled, which makes the recycling process costly and labor intensive.
Chinese sales account for over half of the world’s EVs. To address the issue of batteries in landfills, the Chinese government has enacted policies to place the responsibility of EV battery recycling on auto manufacturers. They must set up recycling channels and service outlets where old batteries can be collected, stored, and transferred to specialist recyclers. In reaction to these rules and the expense of recycling, the industry in China is looking for creative ways to reuse battery packs, rather than recycling them immediately after they are removed from a vehicle. China is leading the way in employing EV batteries in second life capacity uses, particularly when it comes to energy storage. Companies like BYD, an electric bus manufacturer, are using EV batteries as backup storage. Nissan is also using second life EV batteries to power the streetlights in their facility. This reuse not only saves money, it also reduces the demand for battery materials.
Policies on Second Life and Recycling As the first major wave of EV batteries reaches retirement age, countries and industries are grappling with how to handle an influx of batteries entering landfills. Once an EV battery capacity
Source: Bloomberg
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The Future of the EV Battery Over the next decade, as electric buses, semitrucks, and more models of light duty vehicles come on the market, the world will see an increase in electric transportation. The success of the industry depends largely on battery technology innovation. For EVs to appeal to consumers, battery range and cost need to continue to improve. As the number of batteries on the road subsequently rises, the industry needs to develop a plan for their eventual reuse and recycling. Implementing safe and costeffective battery manufacturing, as well as reuse and disposal practices, ensures that EVs continue to be a part of the solution for addressing the environmental and public health effects of emissions.
models that advance EET in their states and territories and work to increase consumer awareness with relevant information about EET technology, policy and programs. For more information about EET at SEEA or this report, contact Anne Blair, director of energy efficient transportation. Authors Madeline Clowse, energy efficient transportation intern with support from Anne Blair, director of energy efficient transportation
About SEEA Founded in 2007, SEEA is a regional energy efficiency organization (REEO), serving eleven states including, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organzation and work to optimize the use and impact of energy to enhance the quality of life in the Southeast. We believe that all people in the Southeast should be able to live and work in healthy and resilient buildings, utilize clean and affordable transportation, and thrive in a robust and equitable economy. About Energy Efficient Transportation The energy efficient transportation (EET) team focuses on supporting energy efficient transportation programs and policies to provide cleaner, safer transportation options to all people in the Southeast. We serve as a resource for stakeholders on transportation electrification information, provide support for state policy makers, state agencies & utilities to develop policy and program
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