The first batch of new energy vehicle battery decommissioning tide has come, but recycling companies are "not enough to eat"?
Data in 2018 showed that the total amount of power batteries retired that year reached 74,000 tons, but the first five "whitelisted" companies in the country that year only recovered and processed about 5,000 tons of power batteries, and the remaining more than 60,000 tons of power. The battery is "missing".
Produced by Deep Eye Studio
Written by: Trainee reporter Du Peng
Our reporter Cao Xiuying
Planning: Liu Li
To change a new battery, the whole process will cost about 60,000 yuan.
"Add a little more money to buy a new car directly." This makes Liu Gong, the owner of the new energy car, a bit "painful".
After all, the price of this new energy vehicle 5 years ago was only more than 100,000 yuan after subsidies.
This car has a mileage of more than 150,000 kilometers, and the original advertised 300 kilometers of cruising range "now can't even run half of it."
After testing, the power battery capacity of this car has decayed to less than 70%. Because it has exceeded the warranty period of 8 years or 150,000 kilometers promised by the manufacturer, Liu Gong can only replace the battery at his own expense.
How much can the depreciation of old batteries be worth?
The scheme given by the 4S shop is very disappointing. If the 4S shop carries out the repurchase, it is almost equal to a free gift.
The staff said, "You can also handle it yourself", but how do you deal with it yourself?
Liu Gong was at a loss.
The recycling and processing of waste batteries for new energy vehicles is just a small problem encountered by Liu Gong in his life, but it is a big issue that must be resolved in the development of China's new energy vehicle industry.
With the support of various forces such as policies and capital, my country's new energy automobile industry can be described as rushing all the way in recent years.
The latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that from January to October this year, my country's new energy vehicle production and sales were 2.566 million and 2.542 million, with a cumulative sales penetration rate of 12.1%.
This means that for every 8 vehicles sold in our country, one is a new energy vehicle.
While the production and sales of new energy vehicles are booming, the power batteries of the first batch of new energy vehicles put on the market are facing "retirement."
Data show that by 2025, the cumulative decommissioning of power batteries in my country is expected to be close to 800,000 tons.
How to deal with retired batteries has become an urgent development problem for the new energy automobile industry.
Driven by the "dual carbon" goal, battery recycling has become a new industry outlet.
Facing the huge potential market size, how to do a good job in battery recycling and improve the level of resource recycling?
What are the "blocking points" in the industry chain that still needs to be improved?
"Whitelist" can't fight "black workshop"
Power battery is one of the three core components of new energy vehicles. Its performance directly determines the safety and cruising range of the entire vehicle, and its cost accounts for about 40% of the entire vehicle.
From the perspective of the service life of power batteries, the service life of power lithium batteries is generally 5-8 years, and the effective life is 4-6 years.
According to the analysis of China Merchants Securities Research Report, if calculated according to the service life of power batteries of 4-6 years, the power batteries produced in 2014 will enter the retirement period in batches in 2018.
It is estimated that starting from 2021, my country will usher in the peak period of the first batch of power battery retirements.
Where should the retired batteries go?
The ideal power battery recycling model has two paths: cascade utilization and recycling and extraction of raw materials.
The former is to disassemble and reassemble retired power batteries and apply them to energy storage and other fields that do not require high battery energy density; the latter is to extract expensive metal materials such as cobalt and nickel from scrap batteries.
According to Guo Wenhui, executive deputy general manager of Zhuhai Zhongli New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., when the battery fails to meet the performance requirements of electric vehicles and is retired, the battery form and performance are evaluated and tested, and the corresponding reforming treatment is carried out on this basis. Later, it can be used in other scenarios that do not require high battery performance, such as grid energy storage and low-speed electric vehicles.
For power batteries that can no longer be downgraded and continue to be used, recycling is their final destination.
The battery module is finely split, and then put into the pole piece crushing device, and then metal materials such as nickel, cobalt, lithium and so on are extracted from it to make lithium carbonate and other products, which can be used in the production of new batteries again to realize resource recycling.
In order to ensure the recovery of power batteries, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Interim Measures for the Management of the Recycling and Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles in 2018, requiring automobile manufacturers to bear the main responsibility for the recovery of power batteries.
Since 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively announced that two batches of 26 companies have entered the list that meets the "Industry Standards and Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", commonly known as the "white list."
But the reality is that the "white list" can't compete with the "black workshops"-a large number of retired power batteries flow into informal channels such as small workshops, bringing safety and environmental hazards.
How to "find" recyclers of retired power batteries on the Internet?
After reporters from Science and Technology Daily tried multiple keyword searches on Internet platforms such as Baidu, Taobao and even Xianyu, to no avail, "car chassis recycling" finally surfaced.
The cover pictures found are mostly densely stacked power battery modules, which are covered by the phone numbers and WeChat accounts of the recyclers. The price of the goods varies greatly, but in the detailed introduction, it is stated that all kinds of power batteries can be collected nationwide. "The price is large and the quantity is favorable."
The reporter consulted some of the merchants about Liu Gong’s new energy vehicle battery model. Most of the merchants stated that the specific quotation depends on the battery situation. One of them gave no less than "100 yuan per kilowatt hour (kWh)". The price is beyond the 4S shop’s offer to Liu Gong.
But without exception, all businesses are not on the "white list".
Data in 2018 showed that the total amount of power batteries retired that year reached 74,000 tons, but the first five "whitelisted" companies in the country that year only recovered and processed about 5,000 tons of power batteries, and the remaining more than 60,000 tons of power. The “whereabouts” of the batteries are “unaccounted for”, and most of them have gone to companies outside the “white list”.
A power battery recycling practitioner described to reporters what he had learned about the scenarios in which some companies deal with power batteries: The power battery modules removed from the car were stacked in an open open field, covered with a thick layer of dust. , Electric drills, screwdrivers, and wrenches were scattered around; first it was manually violently dismantled, followed by a simpler and more rude smashing process. The raised dust filled the entire workshop, and workers in twos and threes were busy inside without protective measures.
In addition to operational safety, what needs to be more vigilant is that some experts say that a 20-gram cell phone battery can pollute 1 square kilometer of land for about 50 years. The larger and heavier electric vehicle power battery contains nickel, cobalt, and manganese. Such as heavy metals, lithium hexafluorophosphate in the electrolyte is easily hydrolyzed in the air environment to produce harmful substances such as phosphorus pentafluoride and hydrogen fluoride, which may pose a greater threat to the environment.
In the process of dismantling and crushing the power battery, some small workshops do not treat the generated exhaust gas, waste liquid, and waste residue, or even discharge it arbitrarily. The dismantling process still has the risk of explosion.
“If the recycling supervision system is not improved as soon as possible, and the flow of used power batteries is strictly controlled, it will bring environmental protection and safety hazards, and even affect the healthy development of the new energy automobile industry.” The relevant person in charge of the power battery manufacturer Ningde Times said in an interview. .
The regular army "cannot get enough food" is difficult to make profit
Why can the regular army "cannot beat" the small workshop?
In fact, becoming a "whitelisted" company is not easy.
The dismantling process needs to use the battery pack intelligent dismantling system, the automatic battery cutting device, as well as the 2-3 level absorption tower, bag filter, exhaust incineration system, waste water treatment facility that meets environmental protection requirements...Ganfeng Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. It is a company on the "white list". Its person in charge, Xie Shaozhong, told reporters one by one the company's investment in standardized processing.
The high cost of investment has also led to the fact that on the recycling side, formal enterprises cannot directly compete with small workshop-type enterprises.
Formal enterprises account for a lot of investment in technology and environmental protection, while non-standard enterprises and small workshops have almost zero investment in this area, and batteries can be bought at a higher price.
"We have to meet more than 50 evaluation conditions before we can enter the'white list'. In 2019, we only spent several million yuan on the upgrade and renovation of the plant." Wang Xiaopeng, director of the energy integration department of Blue Valley Smart (Beijing) Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said bluntly , The current price of power battery recycling is chaotic, and standard enterprises are at a disadvantage due to cost constraints.
Zhang Qinhong, the head of the recycling industry team and associate researcher of the Industry Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University, once conducted research on the power battery recycling industry.
According to his understanding, companies that use power batteries most often use centralized auctions when disposing of batteries.
However, usually only larger companies will conduct qualification review of the recycling and processing companies participating in the bidding; small companies generally do not require strict requirements, "maybe those who have high prices will give it to them."
The above-mentioned person in charge of the Ningde Times told reporters that the vehicles currently entering the scrapped period are basically electric buses and taxis that entered the market early and that have reached the mandatory scrapped period.
The previous mode of handling decommissioned power batteries was that operating companies resell the batteries to companies or individuals with higher prices.
This caused the regular army to "not get enough food."
"At present, there is no gap in my country's power battery recycling process." At the China Electric Vehicle Hundreds Conference held at the beginning of this year, Bao Wei, general manager of Zhejiang Huayou Recycling Technology Co., Ltd., one of the "whitelisted" companies, said bluntly that my country's current power battery recycling The problem facing the processing industry is not insufficient capacity, but the limited number of batteries that can be recycled.
According to Bao Wei's statistics, only the first batch of five companies on the "white list" can handle 600,000 tons, which is more than enough to cope with the current scrap volume of more than 200,000 tons.
Xie Shaozhong also agrees with this point, "Most of the power batteries currently recovered come from leftover materials from battery factories and scrap batteries in the production process. There are not many retired batteries for new energy vehicles that can be obtained."
However, Guo Wenhui believes that the expansion of the market scale will happen sooner or later. "Our design capacity of full production is 200,000 tons, and the current production is about 10%. There is still a lot of room, but the premise is to crack down on small workshops and standardize the industrial chain. ".
Guo Wenhui and others look forward to the real wave of retirement.
“In the early days, the power battery industry was small in scale and was not entered into the national traceability control system. After entering the market, it carried out multi-party circulation. As a result, most of the used power batteries were not returned to the regular recycling channels, which greatly affected the business development of battery recycling standard enterprises." The above-mentioned person in charge of the Ningde era said.
He also emphasized that the currently recovered power batteries are mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have low content of valuable metals and materials, low recovery economic efficiency, and even the possibility of loss; while ternary lithium batteries contain a large amount of valuable The economic benefits of recycling metals and materials are good, but its time to enter the market is still short, and it has not yet entered the scrapping period.
These factors have combined to make it difficult for formal battery recycling and processing companies to make profits, and they have not yet entered a healthy development track.
To enter the blue ocean still needs to form an industrial synergy
In any case, with the rapid development of new energy electric vehicles, the power battery recycling industry has become a "significant learning" at the moment, and a blue ocean is in front of the enterprise.
Various giants such as Tesla, CATL, BYD, etc. have already geared up and are eager to try.
On October 12, CATL issued an announcement that Guangdong Bangpu Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. and its holding subsidiaries, one of the group's holding subsidiaries and one of the companies on the "white list", will be located in Yaojiagang Chemical Park, Yichang City, Hubei Province. Tianjiahe area invests in the construction of Bangpu Integrated Battery Material Industrial Park project, the total investment amount of the project does not exceed RMB 32 billion.
On the recycling side, in addition to cooperating with car manufacturers to recycle batteries, many companies are also stepping up their efforts to build their own recycling systems.
Xie Shaozhong said that his company plans to establish recycling outlets nationwide in the next step, and establish recycling and disassembly outlets in the Pearl River Delta, North China, Southwest and other areas where power batteries are densely populated. Raw materials, so as to avoid the safety risks and capital costs of long-distance transportation of batteries.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of September this year, 171 new energy vehicle production and comprehensive utilization companies have set up 9,985 recycling service outlets in 31 provinces and municipalities across the country.
The power battery recycling industry has a wide coverage and a long industrial chain, ranging from battery manufacturers to end-use companies, and many are involved.
To effectively develop this blue ocean, upstream and downstream enterprises need to work together.
Zhang Qinhong believes that the current phenomenon of "speaking each other" within the industry has to a certain extent caused the uncertainty of the safety and reliability of the power battery utilization process, "this hinders the promotion of the cascade utilization product market."
In response to the problem of power battery data information sharing, Bao Wei called on the industry to unite, "Upstream car and battery manufacturers should share battery data with downstream recycling companies to improve recycling efficiency."
It is reported that a number of related companies have begun joint actions to maintain the industry ecology.
On July 16, nine key new energy vehicle and battery manufacturers, including Geely Group, Zhejiang Tianneng, and Zhejiang Chaowei, issued a joint statement calling for "boycott small workshops."
They stated that they would restrict bidding companies to be "whitelisted" in the auction of waste power batteries, and prevent middlemen and small workshop companies from participating in bidding; at the same time, they called on new energy vehicle and power battery manufacturers across the country to abide by and regulate the use of waste power batteries. Flow to the channel.
This is regarded as the industry's official start to "declare war" on the gray industrial chain of power battery recycling and processing represented by small workshop-type enterprises.
Relevant policies still need to be detailed and implemented
Guo Wenhui regarded the "dual carbon" goal as an opportunity. "One of the goals of the power battery recycling industry is to reduce carbon emissions. The more power batteries the industry recycles, the fewer new batteries it produces and the less carbon emissions."
Xie Shaozhong also believes that the new energy automobile industry will usher in further development under the background of "dual carbon", and the resulting large number of retired power batteries will also embark on the road of standardized processing, which means for related companies Huge market potential; at the same time, he also hopes that with the gradual maturity of related mechanisms such as the carbon trading market in the future, regulated companies can take the lead in the "carbon" economy.
Zhang Qinhong said that under the "dual-carbon" goal, measuring the value of the power battery recycling industry must not just look at the present.
"In the current market environment, the environmental protection value of the industry has not been reflected, resulting in the industry's seemingly weaker competitiveness. However, as a'carbon reduction' industry, its future industrial value will gradually appear, which requires appropriate guidance and Support," he said.
In addition, the rapid development of the new energy electric vehicle industry in the next period of time will tighten the constraints on battery raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. “China’s cobalt resources are in short supply, and 95% of its demand depends on imports. It is used to manufacture power batteries.” Zhang Qinhong believes that in this case, it is more important to develop the power battery recycling industry, promote the recycling of battery metal raw materials, and reduce dependence on source mineral resources.
At present, relevant departments have successively issued a number of policy documents, pointing out the direction for the power battery recycling industry.
In early July this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the "14th Five-Year" Circular Economy Development Plan", proposing actions for the recycling of used power batteries, strengthening the construction of a new energy vehicle power battery traceability management platform, and improving the power of new energy vehicles Traceability management system for battery recycling.
On August 19, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for the Echelon Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles" to encourage upstream and downstream companies in the industry to strengthen information sharing, and require companies to test power batteries in accordance with given standards and actual data. Evaluate the residual value to improve product performance, reliability and economy.
In addition, Luo Junjie, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau, also said at the press conference that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will accelerate the promotion of the recycling of new energy vehicle power batteries from the aspects of regulations, policies, technology, standards, and industries. A number of measures have been proposed to improve the supervision system, establish a recycling system, and strengthen technological innovation.
The policy has been introduced, but it will take time for it to be effective.
In the opinion of some industry insiders interviewed, the current relevant policy documents generally still focus on encouragement and guidance, not only lacking mandatory constraints, but related content also needs to be further refined and implemented.
For example, the standard problem that has been plagued by tiered utilization companies-how much battery capacity is left and how long the tiered utilization can be used safely, Guo Wenhui said that these all need to be evaluated by a unified standard. Mature, some are unscientific."
Guo Wenhui also hopes that the government can lead relevant industry associations to establish more complete and scientific standards as soon as possible to promote the development of industry standards.
Power battery recycling, an emerging industry that started early and developed rapidly, is still in a barbaric growth stage and needs effective guidance from the government.
"But how to further carry out effective management, rationally build a power battery recycling system, effectively implement the full life cycle traceability management, and guide the upstream and downstream entities of the industry chain to fulfill the power battery recycling responsibility? These all require the government to consider the market and industry. Planning and overall planning." The above-mentioned person in charge of Ningde Times said.
(In the text, Liu Gong is a pseudonym, and the picture in this version is provided by Visual China)