EU battery recycling plan highly ambitious, initial cobalt quotas unrealistic – report

The longevity of electric car batteries will cause a scarcity of recycled raw materials, making some of the EU’s targets for battery recycling unrealistic, researchers from the German Economic Institute (IW) said. “The quotas for recycled cobalt in particular are unlikely to be feasible at first,” they concluded in a report.

The new EU Battery Regulation came into force at the beginning of the year, stipulating that from 2036 at least 26 percent of cobalt in every battery must be recycled, compared to 15 percent for nickel and 12 percent for lithium, IW said. The researchers said the EU’s general approach is correct, but added that the quotas were highly ambitious given that electric car batteries can be used for a long time, while demand for batteries is set to increase rapidly.  

“Recycled lithium and cobalt in particular are likely to become scarce,” IW said. “If each vehicle battery lasts an average of around 14 years and then goes straight back into the cycle, there will be a shortage of around 3,500 tonnes of recycled cobalt by 2031.” If electric car batteries are put to other uses after serving in cars, for example for stationary energy storage, there would be a shortfall of more than 4,100 tonnes of recycled cobalt by 2031, the researchers predict. “The EU regulation would be impossible to fulfil, at least as long as there are no other sources for the recycled raw materials.”

Report co-author Sarah Lichtenthäler said the EU needed to ensure that batteries are collected at the end of their lifetime, and prevent their export to ensure that they remain available as a resource. “We are still not making optimum use of resources in terms of the circular economy,” Lichtenthäler said. According to IW calculations, around 231,000 tonnes of nickel will be needed across the EU in 2031, rising to almost 490,000 tonnes in 2045.

The sourcing and recycling of input materials for green technologies like electric cars, wind turbines and solar cells must be improved dramatically to enable the energy transition. Germany's huge car-making industry means the country faces a massive challenge to ensure that the resources needed on the way to clean mobility do not cause social and environmental damage.