Watch · Climate and energy technology
Why we shouldn’t recycle old EV batteries… yet.
The Brief
- Asks whether used electric vehicle batteries should be recycled immediately or given a second life storing renewable energy
- Looks at real-world second-life battery projects in the USA, Canada and Australia
- Covers how falling battery prices, different chemistries and economics complicate the decision
- Cites reports from Bloomberg NEF, the IEA, ICCT and others, along with an Australian trial and a Dalhousie study of ancillary services
Why watch · It explains the trade-offs between recycling and reusing EV batteries as they reach the end of their automotive life.
- EV batteries
- battery recycling
- second-life batteries
- energy storage
Summarised by Claude from the video’s title and description – no transcript was available, so check the video for the details.
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Batteries : Electric vehicle batteries are lasting far longer than many people expected. So when they eventually leave their cars, should we immediately recycle them—or give them a second life storing renewable energy? This week we look at real-world projects in the USA, Canada and Australia, and discover why rapidly falling battery prices, different chemistries and some surprising economics are making that decision far more complicated than it first appears. Help support this channel's independence at http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=GWR73EHXGJMAE&source=url You can also help keep my brain ticking over during the long hours of research and editing via the nice folks at BuyMeACoffee.com https://www.buymeacoffee.com/justhaveathink Reference Links Reuters article https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/europe-drives-global-ev-sales-growth-august-offsetting-china-north-america-2026-09-10/ ICCT report https://theicct.org/pr-battery-electric-cars-europe-market-share-spikes-29-august AFRY report https://beyondfossilfuels.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AFRY_BFF_Grid-expectations-The-distribution-backlog-stalling-Europes-energy-transition-report.pdf Bloomberg report https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-transport/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-fall-to-108-per-kilowatt-hour-despite-rising-metal-prices-bloombergnef Relectrify https://arena.gov.au/assets/2025/05/Relectrify-Second-life-battery-trial-Final-knowledge-sharing-report.pdf Dalhousie Paper https://resl.me.dal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/nrc-dal-2nd-life-ancillary-svc-year-1-report-final-3.pdf IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/857aa690-2a43-453f-9f12-147cc8f0a1dd/GlobalEVOutlook2026.pdf IEA Electric Car Markets in a Time of Uncertainty https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/a096b500-9d47-411d-a5db-b297a5d95927/ElectricCarMarketsinaTimeofUncertainty.pdf Environmental Science & Technology paper https://pubs.acs.org/esthag/article-pdf/59/30/15751/41007312/es5c01823.pdf EU Data Update https://alternative-fuels-observatory.ec.europa.eu/general-information/news/eafo-data-update-news-flash-september-2026 Guardian article on Australian EV sales https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/04/ev-sales-outpace-petrol-cars-for-first-time-as-australians-dodge-soaring-fuel-costs Cobb et al - Economic pathways for used EV batteries