As transport systems shift towards hybrid and fully electric vehicles, attention is increasingly turning to the batteries that power them. While electric vehicles are central to decarbonised mobility, their batteries also raise important environmental, economic and regulatory challenges. How can these be addressed more sustainably?
Given that it is projected that 250 million electric vehicles will be on the road by 2030, it is more important than ever to ensure that we have in place scalable and sustainable strategies to recover and reuse these batteries. Creating new batteries demands raw materials like cobalt, lithium and nickel, which are difficult to extract and come at a significant resource cost and geopolitical precarity. Improper disposal of batteries also risks ecosystems and public health. Implementing circular economy principles to electric vehicle batteries not only helps recover and creates value, but also supports a more sustainable and healthy future for us all.
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