Honda has announced that it’s extending its partnership that allows used batteries from electric and hybrid cars to be recycled.
What happens to the batteries once an electrified model is taken off the roads remains an issue with EVs and hybrids, though Honda’s scheme gives these units a ‘second life’.
The firm has been partnered with battery recycling firm SNAM since 2013, with the expanded scheme now meaning that batteries from electrified models across Europe will be collected from Honda dealerships.
They will then be prepared for a ‘second life’ in renewable energy storage or have the valuable materials (cobalt and lithium) extracted from them if they’re not suitable for re-use. These can then be utilised in new materials.
Tom Gardner, senior vice president at Honda Motor Europe, said: “As demand for Honda’s expanding range of hybrid and electric cars continues to grow so does the requirement to manage batteries in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
“Recent market developments may allow us to make use of these batteries in a second life application for powering businesses or by using recently improved recycling techniques to recover useful raw materials which can be used as feedstock into the production of new batteries.”
Honda says that low carbon transport is utilised for the end-of-life batteries – specifically ‘traction’ batteries that are used to power the electric motors in hybrids and EVs.
Honda is slowly building its electrified portfolio. The firm’s CR-V SUV is available with a hybrid powertrain, while the new Jazz supermini is now purely hybrid-powered. The ‘e’ will also arrive in showrooms later this year as the firm’s first EV to be sold in Europe. By 2022, its full range will be electrified.
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