[groon]

Has anyone seen any recent information about Rivian's plans for battery recycling once the packs reach end-of-life, and/or incorporating recycled materials into their own battery manufacturing? A saw a few older posts (2019, 2020) about how their proof-of-concept vehicle batteries were planned for repurposing to solar projects in Puerto Rico, but I'm curious about this aspect of the life cycle of the vehicles now that manufacturing is ramping up by orders of magnitude.

Also, given that EVs are so low maintenence in many ways it would be great if there were some approach to replacing the battery packs in 10 years or whenever significant degradation starts to set in. Has anyone heard anything along these lines?

 

[eHauler]

Welcome to the forum @groon.
Haven't heard of anything yet but eventually we should see third party companies start doing this.
That should undercut what automakers charge and help us get more value.

 

[NY_Rob]

IIRC, in their Financial Statement they mentioned them being primarily used in power-wall type applications after being retired from automotive service.

 

[TT97]

IIRC, in their Financial Statement they mentioned them being primarily used in power-wall type applications after being retired from automotive service.

That is my assumption of what will happen with old batteries (and already the case for many DIY projects); battery-backup systems don't have the same strain on batteries as EVs and weight/space is not an issue. A 50 kWh battery with 70% retention is still more energy that I need to power my house for 24 hours on even the hottest days (and that's ignoring any solar production).

 

[FanFLelectric]

Has anyone seen any recent information about Rivian's plans for battery recycling once the packs reach end-of-life, and/or incorporating recycled materials into their own battery manufacturing? A saw a few older posts (2019, 2020) about how their proof-of-concept vehicle batteries were planned for repurposing to solar projects in Puerto Rico, but I'm curious about this aspect of the life cycle of the vehicles now that manufacturing is ramping up by orders of magnitude.

Also, given that EVs are so low maintenence in many ways it would be great if there were some approach to replacing the battery packs in 10 years or whenever significant degradation starts to set in. Has anyone heard anything along these lines?

While it is not possible for Rivian to make any data based projections, Tesla has. In recent months reports of battery pack lives of 300,000-500,000 miles are being reported. Tesla car batteries are said to be designed to last 300,000-500,000 miles (as purported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk), or about 21-35 years, based on the average amount of miles driven by Americans in one year, which is typically around 14,263. I will be getting quite up in years if I manage to drive our Rivian R1S for 200,000 miles. Beginning in May 2022.

 

[groon]

In recent months reports of battery pack lives of 300,000-500,000 miles are being reported.

Wow, that is incredible - I hadn't realized that battery pack lifetimes were getting to that level and yeah that could outlive me for sure I have in my head my 10-year old/60k mile Leaf which, while I understand there are well-known issues with that early-ish technology, is on the edge of no longer being useful.

Just curious: when they quote a "lifetime" of 300-500k miles, do you know what that refers to exactly in terms of degradation? Is that when it's down to 50% capacity, or some other metric?

 

[FanFLelectric]

Wow, that is incredible - I hadn't realized that battery pack lifetimes were getting to that level and yeah that could outlive me for sure I have in my head my 10-year old/60k mile Leaf which, while I understand there are well-known issues with that early-ish technology, is on the edge of no longer being useful.

Just curious: when they quote a "lifetime" of 300-500k miles, do you know what that refers to exactly in terms of degradation? Is that when it's down to 50% capacity, or some other metric?

There are variables, like how often the battery is drained and then charged to full charge. Also, the number of discharges and re-charges. What is in print is about 10 percent loss at 200,000 miles. Whether the battery pack would sitll charge to 50 percent of original energy capacity at one million miles is yet to be seen. But it is my guess that there is someone out there trying to determine how long he/she can make their Tesla last.

 

[Jimi]

Recycling will be a big business in the future, environmentally beneficial too!

Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles - Nature

Processes for dismantling and recycling lithium-ion battery packs from scrap electric vehicles are outlined.

www.nature.com

 

[groon]

Recycling will be a big business in the future, environmentally beneficial too!

Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles - Nature

Processes for dismantling and recycling lithium-ion battery packs from scrap electric vehicles are outlined.

www.nature.com

Fascinating article with a lot of great info on the environmental and economic pros and cons of recycling methods - thanks for the pointer.

 

[GolfProFred]

JB Straubel (Tesla co-founder) has a battery recycling startup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_Materials,_Inc.

Redwood Materials | Circular Supply Chain for Lithium-ion Batteries

Redwood creates a closed-loop, domestic supply chain by recycling and refining lithium-ion batteries and remanufacturing anode and cathode components.

www.redwoodmaterials.com