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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