Where will your battery go?

Electrically assisted bikes, trikes, etc. that are legal in the UK
Post Reply
User avatar
horizon
Posts: 11275
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Cornwall

Where will your battery go?

Post by horizon »

I just wondered if anyone had a clear idea as to what will happen to their battery at the end of its life.

Not sure if this is relevant:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable ... -recycling
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
User avatar
[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19801
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: Where will your battery go?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

There are a number of battery recycling facilities already - and I imagine they will become more ubiquitous over the next few years.

Of course they don't die instantly either - they degrade... In the car case that makes for an excellent home backup (which further benefits the nation's electricity supply, and actually makes sense of smart metering) for many times their 'in car' life.

It's not nearly the impending catastrophe that the article implies. A couple of years ago Tesla had suggested a ten year 'in car' life for their batteries, but the telemetry they were getting was pushing that out by 20-30%. That's significant, and of course they can easily be repackaged into PowerWall style product for another decade or more of useful life.

Transport is just the first life stage for modern batteries...

Where will my battery go? I don't know. It will take a good amount more commuting for me to have to consider that question - then it will go to the best solution available at the time. That might even be a ghetto 'garage UPS'...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Post Reply