IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v414y2026ics0306261926004617.html

Electric-vehicle battery second-life and recycling pathways: How economics depend on chemistry, processing, and application

Author

Listed:
  • Cobb, Anna
  • Ramirez-Meyers, Katrina
  • Michalek, Jeremy
  • Swaminathan, Shashank
  • Gasper, Paul
  • Polzin, Bryant
  • Smith, Kandler

Abstract

We assess the economics of repurposing and recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries by estimating the maximum acquisition price repurposers and recyclers could pay for used EV packs across cathode chemistries, first-life conditions, second-life applications, and recycling processes. We develop a novel open-source process-based cost model of a UL-1974-certified repurposing facility and leverage battery degradation models to estimate the maximum acquisition price repurposers could pay for used EV batteries while producing second-life battery energy storage systems with life-adjusted costs equivalent to new systems. We compare these maximum price estimates to maximum prices for recyclers based on cost and revenue estimates from the EverBatt model. We find that repurposing is more economical than recycling for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, due to their relatively long life and low value materials; recycling is generally more economical than repurposing for lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) batteries, due to their shorter life and higher value materials; and the economics for lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries depend more heavily on first life retirement conditions and second life application intensity. These results suggest an overall strategy: reuse LFP, recycle NCA, and sort NMC into recycling or repurposing pathways based on state of health and second-life application.

Suggested Citation

  • Cobb, Anna & Ramirez-Meyers, Katrina & Michalek, Jeremy & Swaminathan, Shashank & Gasper, Paul & Polzin, Bryant & Smith, Kandler, 2026. "Electric-vehicle battery second-life and recycling pathways: How economics depend on chemistry, processing, and application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 414(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:414:y:2026:i:c:s0306261926004617
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2026.127809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261926004617
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2026.127809?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:414:y:2026:i:c:s0306261926004617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.