Honda and Nissan are investing in emerging tech solutions and partnering with startups and other corporations to reduce electric vehicle battery waste. We dig into the companies’ strategies in the EV battery recycling and reuse spaces.
Rising consumer demand is causing auto makers to ramp up electric vehicle (EV) production. Governments around the world are also working to phase out gas-powered vehicles to reduce emissions, leading to more sales. In 2022, for example, EV sales increased 57% YoY.
These trends are generating a glut of used EV batteries that contain critical raw materials and still hold an average of 80% of their charge capacity.
As automakers look to make their processes more sustainable, opportunities to extract and reuse the materials (i.e., battery recycling) or find new applications for used batteries altogether are top-of-mind.
Battery recycling could also address the issue of sourcing the raw materials needed to make EV batteries. New business models that enable a circular economy for batteries are gaining ground, though they are in the very early stages of deployment. Still, battery recycling and reuse startups raised over $1B in 2022, up more than 25x since 2019.
In this brief, we explore Honda and Nissan’s activity in the EV battery recycling and reuse space as they strive to decrease EV manufacturing emissions while capitalizing on new business opportunities.
