When an Electric Car Dies, What Will Happen to the Battery?

In the race to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, another challenge awaits on the other side of the finish line: recycling all of those batteries.

The Department of Energy recently awarded $9.5 million to a California-based recycling company to boost capacity for lithium-ion batteries, the kind used to power most of the new hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles entering the world market.

Toxco Inc. — currently the only U.S.-based company able to recycle all sizes and models of lithium-ion batteries — will use the grant to expand its recycling facility in Lancaster, Ohio, to process vehicle-grade batteries.

The facility currently processes large-format lead-acid batteries, as well as nickel-metal hydride batteries used in the current population of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The grant is part of $2.4 billion in stimulus funds awarded last month to jump-start the manufacturing and deployment of a domestic crop of vehicle batteries, part of President Obama’s pledge to transition the country away from a dependency on foreign oil and foreign-made batteries.

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Tags: battery recycling, department of energy, electric car, hybrid electric vehicles, lead acid batteries, lithium, lithium battery, lithium ion batteries, metal hydride batteries, nickel metal hydride, nickel metal hydride batteries, obama, vehicle batteries

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Automotive, Innovation Needed, Project Energy, Scientific American, environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.