Featured Toyota President Says 'Silent Majority' Not Convinced on EV-Only Future

Right now, lithium batteries are allowed to go in landfills. Not that the landfill operators want that fire risk.

Although there are organizations researching and developing some really clever stuff for lithium battery recycling, I'm not aware of anyone anywhere actually doing any recycling.

 

Not enough feedstock. But at one time, Toyota claimed they were recycling Prius NiMH batteries.

Bob Wilson

 

What about Redwood Materials?

https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/

Mike

 

3PriusMike and bwilson4web this is an interesting topic you guys bring up. There is a race on right now in the Lithium Recycling Business as a couple of enterprising companies can see a large business opportunity that has $$$ signs written all over it.

One of a multitude of companies who see the potential opportunity.

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Finally Takes Off in North America and Europe - IEEE Spectrum

"LATER THIS YEAR, the Canadian firm Li-Cycle will begin constructing a US $175 million plant in Rochester, N.Y., on the grounds of what used to be the Eastman Kodak complex. When completed, it will be the largest lithium-ion battery-recycling plant in North America."

A video of another player getting a jump on this new opportunity

American Battery Technology's Pre-Commercial Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Plant Progress Dec 2021 - Bing video

The wealth of new Electric Vehicle Battery Plants being built in the Southeast United States will provide ready consumers for the materials produced from these recycling plants

New EV Battery Plants in US | PriusChat

 

We've gone on several auto mfg tours, plywood mfg, etc .... would love to see how lithium battery material goes.
.

 

I suspect the Prius NiMH batteries have enough nickel to to be more valuable than the rest of the body of the car. Then the transaxle has two motors with powerful magnets and copper windings.

Bob Wilson

 

I can't wait to see what "develops" there

Mike

 

Not only are they not convinced, they have no idea there is such a thing as an electric car.
Woman Sure Tesla Model 3 Runs On Gas, Is Determined To Fill It Up

Proof we PriusChatters might be living in alternate universe. I've always suspected there are people who purchased PHEV that are exactly like this and have no idea what they bought other than they can get in the carpool lane. Or these people are great actors.

 

I find it very hard to believe that the video was not staged. From what I hear, you don't just jump into a Tesla and it magically works. You have to figure out where the "direction selector" is. You have to figure out how to use the multi purpose display. You have to figure out where the door handles are hidden.

But the part that is least believable is that the car owner turned the car over to this person (who is obviously dense) without explaining the basics, such as "you never put gas in it".

 

One of the reasons I haven't bought one is could I depend on my wife being able to operate it safely on a moment's notice. Teach my 15 year old to drive in it.

 

i couldn't even figure out how to start a bmw 20 years ago

 

20 years ago... when they introduced that interesting joystick to control everything via drop down menus?

When I bought my first Prius ( 2002) I was quite worried about handing the keys to a valet. I was pleased to learn that many of the valets were able to put the car in gear and to park it safely.

 

That sounds like a nightmare! I can't even figure out how to use the radio on my Avalon's infotainment center.

 

i can't remember. funny thing was, the owner was an 80 year old woman. she had just purchased it after totaling her lexus, and ask me if i wanted to take it for a drive. i went out with the keys, unlocked the door, put it in the ignition, stepped on the brake, turned the key and ... nothing.
when back inside for the secret code . i can't remember what the fianl step was to start it, but it was something i'd never had to do on any other car after 30 years of driving.

i was also worried about valets when i got a prius. in fact, in a hotel in san fran, i had to show the guy how to start it and shut it off because they had to park off site, and i was concerned he'd leave it powered up and walk away with the key.

 

Every new Tesla factory that has battery manufacturing also has a dedicated battery recycling section. From the many, many times this question has been asked of Tesla, the answer has consistently been that although very few Tesla batteries as of now are at end-of-life (typically accidents or R&D test batteries for the next few years), every one of those that is at end-of-life/damaged gets recycled at the Nevada or Austin factories. None of them get landfilled.

Battery Recycling | Tesla Support

(From the Tesla 2020 Impact Report)
“In the fourth quarter of 2020, Tesla successfully installed the first phase of our cell recycling facility at Gigafactory Nevada for in-house processing of both battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. While Tesla has worked for years with third-party battery recyclers to ensure our batteries do not end up in a landfill, we understand the importance of also building recycling capacity in-house to supplement these relationships. Onsite recycling brings us one step closer to closing the loop on materials generation, allowing for raw material transfer straight to our nickel and cobalt suppliers. The facility unlocks the cycle of innovation for battery recycling at scale, allowing Tesla to rapidly improve current designs through operational learnings and to perform process testing of R&D products.”

This is not new news.

For what it's worth, Tesla has had excellent results with recycled materials from batteries:
https://electrek.co/2021/08/09/tesla-battery-cell-material-recovery-new-recycling-process/
From that same article,
"The company says that it had 1,300 tons of nickel, 400 tons of copper, and 80 tons of cobalt recycled in 2020."

Again, none of these are recent developments. Tesla is doing battery recycling and has been doing so for years now. No, not at scale because as of yet there IS no scale to feed in. Post 2027 or so there will start to be some scale, one would expect, as the mass of 2017 Model 3's finally start to age/wear out. It sure looks from here like they will be ready.

 

While at a gas station, a woman asked me for help in opening the filler flap to the VW she was driving. There was no button or lever to be found. Luckily, the owner's manual was in the car. This was pre or very early smart phone era. You had to put the key in the driver's door lock, and turn it the opposite way from unlocking the door for the flap to unlatch.

Then there was the gen2 Prius traction control. No button to turn it off like nearly every other car then and since. It took some pedal dance sequence to turn it off.

 

Easiest to start and put in gear was our 2017 model x. All you had to do was walk up near the door & it self-presents. Then when you step on the brake (like you do with most any car) you just flip the forward or reverse lever either forward or reverse and you're on your way. Walk away from the car and the door closes and locks itself. The ultimate in absurd laziness.
High School buddy's 56 Chevy was hard to gas up the 1st time. The gas filler port was hidden inside one of the "tail fins"

And what a pathetic irony it is that we are suddenly hair on fire worried about battery recycling yet when GM went bankrupt and left billions worth of super fund environmental damage - nobody batted an eye. But that only came out of taxpayers pockets one would suppose. It has to make one wonder how many other toxic landfills have been swept under the rug from all the other standard ICE manufacturers.

 

Except the '56 Chevy didn't have tail fins, That was a '57 feature.

 

that made it even harder to find

 

The pedal dance was only described in the Repair Manual, with a caution that this was not for normal driving.