Tesla is developing a closed-loop battery recycling system that is expected to save a lot of money on battery materials

(Image source: Tesla official website)

Tesla confirmed this week that it is developing a "unique battery recycling system" that the company believes can save "substantial money" in the long run,media reported.

On April 15, local time, Tesla released a new "impact report" that showed that Tesla's fleet of more than 500,000 electric vehicles has helped prevent 4 million tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. In the report, Tesla also elaborated on its ideas for battery recycling: "I often hear people ask, "What happens once the battery pack of a Tesla car is exhausted?" Fossil fuels and lithium-ion batteries are both energy sources, but the difference between them is that fossil fuels can be extracted and used once, while the materials in lithium-ion batteries can be recycled and reused. When oil is extracted from the ground, chemically refined and burned, it releases harmful gases into the atmosphere, and such gases cannot be recycled. In contrast, battery materials are refined and then put into batteries, and they can still be retained after the end of the battery life, and the valuable materials in them can be recycled and reused repeatedly."

When it comes to battery recycling, most automakers are currently focusing on applications after the battery packs have exhausted their lifespan, but Tesla is different from them. Automakers such as Hyundai, BMW and Renault have announced that they will use old battery packs in energy storage systems instead of recycling them to produce new ones. Some of these automakers are already using recycled old battery packs for energy storage systems.

Tesla said it is not currently recycling a large number of battery packs because they have reached the end of their life, but Tesla is recycling several battery packs used in "R&D, production, quality control and service operations." The company said it is working with third-party battery recyclers around the world to process all spent batteries and recover valuable metals. Working with recycling partners to ensure that materials in batteries that have no value or cannot be recycled are handled responsibly.

But this is obviously only a temporary solution, as Tesla said it is also developing a battery recycling system at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. Tesla said in the report: "Tesla is developing a unique battery recycling system at Gigafactory 1 that can process both battery production waste and end-of-life batteries. Through this system, key minerals such as lithium and cobalt and all metals such as copper, aluminum and steel in batteries will be recycled at the highest rate. All of the above materials will be recycled in the form that is most suitable for use as new battery production materials.

Several companies are also currently investigating how to recover critical minerals from batteries during the recycling process, and American Manganese recently achieved high recovery rates in lithium-ion battery cathode materials at a pilot recycling plant.

Tesla believes that its closed-loop battery recycling process will save considerable money because the cost of recycling and reusing battery materials at scale is far lower than the cost of purchasing and transporting new materials.

Additionally, Tesla co-founder and current CTO JB Straubel founded a materials recycling startup two years ago that is believed to have close ties to Tesla.