[SMM Analysis] Power Battery Recycling: Opportunities and Challenges Coexist, Driven by Both Policy and Technology

SMM March 1 News:

With the rapid development of the NEV industry, power battery recycling has become a critical issue that urgently needs to be addressed for the high-quality development of the sector. As NEVs are retired, the market is expected to witness a peak in power battery retirements. However, during the rapid expansion of the domestic power battery recycling industry, "barbaric growth" has given rise to numerous industry irregularities.

Recently, the State Council Executive Meeting reviewed and approved the "Action Plan for Improving the NEV Power Battery Recycling System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"). This plan aims to resolve bottlenecks in industrial development, establish a standardized, safe, and efficient recycling system, and leverage digital technology to monitor the entire life cycle flow of power batteries, ensuring full traceability in production, sales, dismantling, and utilization.

Although the power battery recycling market has broad prospects, the industry still faces many bottlenecks and challenges. Official reports indicate that the standardized recycling rate of power batteries in China is currently less than 25%, with significant issues such as unimpeded recycling channels. The introduction of the "Action Plan" is expected to curb non-standard recycling practices at the source.

On the technical front, China's lithium power battery recycling and processing industry has made significant breakthroughs. Current mainstream recycling and processing technologies include cascade utilization and dismantling recycling. Cascade utilization technology allows scrap batteries with higher residual capacity to be reapplied in ESS, backup power supplies for communication base stations, low-speed EVs, and other fields, achieving secondary utilization of batteries. Dismantling recycling technology, on the other hand, processes scrap batteries through physical and chemical methods to extract valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium for the production of new battery materials.

With the continuous application of intelligent technologies, the lithium power battery recycling and processing industry is gradually transitioning toward automation and intelligence. The introduction of advanced technologies such as IoT and big data has made full life cycle tracking and management of scrap batteries a reality. The widespread use of intelligent dismantling robots and other equipment has also significantly improved dismantling efficiency and safety.

The power battery recycling industry is at a new starting point for development. Strong policy support and continuous technological innovation will drive its progress toward a more standardized and efficient direction, providing solid support for the sustainable development of the NEV industry.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Ying Xu 021-51666707

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Yujun Liu 021-20707895

Xiaodan Yu 021-20707870

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711

He Zhang 021-20707850