Research on the Critical Issues for Power Battery Reusing of New Energy Vehicles in China

Abstract

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles (NEVs) industry in China, the reusing of retired power batteries is becoming increasingly urgent. In this paper, the critical issues for power batteries reusing in China are systematically studied. First, the strategic value of power batteries reusing, and the main modes of battery reusing are analyzed. Second, the economic benefit models of power batteries echelon utilization and recycling are constructed. Finally, the economic benefits of lithium iron phosphate (LIP) battery and ternary lithium (TL) battery under different reusing modes are analyzed based on the economic benefit models. The results show that when the industrial chain is fully coordinated, LIP battery echelon utilization is profitable based on a reasonable scenario scheme. However, the multi-level echelon utilization is only practical under an ideal scenario, and more attention should be paid to the first level echelon utilization. Besides, the performance matching of different types of batteries has a great impact on the echelon utilization income. Thus, considering the huge potentials of China’s energy storage market, the design of automobile power batteries in the future should give due consideration to the performance requirements of energy storage batteries. Moreover, the TL battery could only be recycled directly, while the LIP has the feasibility of echelon utilization at present. At the same time, it will strengthen the cost advantage of the LIP battery, which deserves special attention.