China is not only the world’s largest EV market; It has also become a major global manufacturing hub for EVs and the batteries that power them. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, in 2024, the country will account for more than 70 percent of global electric car production and more than half of global EV sales, and firms such as CATL and BYD together control nearly half of global EV battery production. These companies are stepping up to offer solutions to consumers looking to offload their old batteries. Through their dealers and 4S stores, many car manufacturers now offer buy-back schemes or opportunities to trade in old batteries when owners scrap the vehicle or buy a new one.
BYD operates its own recycling operations that process thousands of life packs a year and has established dedicated programs with specialist recyclers to recover material from its batteries. Geely has created a “circular manufacturing” system that combines the disassembly of scrapped vehicles, the cascade use of electric batteries, and high recovery rates for metals and other materials.
China’s largest EV maker, Kettle, through its subsidiary Burnup, has built one of the industry’s most advanced recycling systems, including more than 240 collection depots, approximately 270,000 tons of waste batteries, and over 99 percent metal recovery rates for nickel, cobalt, and manganese.
“There’s no one better to handle these batteries than these companies,” says Shanghai-based battery engineer Alex Li. This is because they can already put the chemistry, supply chain, and exported materials into the next one. Carmakers and battery makers “ultimately need to create a closed loop,” he says.
But not every consumer can get this support from their EV manufacturer, as there are many of these manufacturers. Over the past five years, more than 400 small EV brands and startups have gone bankrupt as a price war has left only 100 active brands today.
Analysts expect lots of used batteries to hit the market in the coming years, as the first big wave of EVs bought under generosity reaches retirement age. “China needs to move very quickly toward a comprehensive lifecycle system for EV batteries—one that can track, reuse, and recycle them on a large scale, rather than leaving many to disappear into the gray market,” Li says.