China · Rest of World
The U.S. and Europe lack anything close to China’s capacity to shred and refine batteries
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A deal struck this month showed what that looks like.
Key facts
- Worn-out batteries there hit about 820,000 tons last year and should reach a million tons a year by 2030, according to the research firm EVtank
- Its rules order recyclers to recover half of all lithium by 2027 and four-fifths by 2031, and require new batteries to contain a set share of recycled metal, according to the European Union
- Redwood Materials, the biggest U.S. recycler, estimates the 5 million electric cars on U.S. roads hold roughly 2.25 million tons of battery metals, to be tapped first through reuse and later
- Rules that took effect on April 1 dropped reuse as a goal and put metal recovery first, according to a government statement
Summary
China mandates immediate recycling of spent EV batteries for metal recovery, while the U.S. prefers giving depleted batteries a second life as grid storage first. The strategies center on lithium, nickel, and cobalt, scarce metals dominated by Chinese refining, making battery recycling a matter of both economics and national security for Western nations. China has built over 85% of global recycling capacity and tracks every battery cradle-to-grave, while the U.S. lags without a national recycling plan. The first wave of electric-vehicle batteries is reaching the end of the road, and China and the West are taking different paths on what to do with them. China has picked the shredder.