REVIEW End-of-life (EOL) issues and options for electric vehicle batteries Monsuru Olalekan Ramoni • Hong-Chao Zhang Received: 29 August 2012 / Accepted: 5 February 2013 / Published online: 19 February 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Nearly all global players in the auto industry are now producing electric vehicles (EV). Many studies indicated that by year 2020, 6 millions could be sold in US alone and about 11 million worldwide. As the number of EVs increases, there is need to have well-defined end-of- life (EOL) strategy for the batteries removed from EVs as part of collective efforts to transform the auto industry to environmental friendly industry. Recycling has been pro- posed as the EOL option for the EV batteries, but there are many issues that make recycling less justifiable, this paper lays out those issues and proposes remanufacturing as the alternate and appropriate EOL option. In view of this, the paper details research issues which require thorough stud- ies to make EV batteries remanufacturing feasible and effective. Keywords EV battery Á EOL strategy Á Recycling Á Remanufacturing Introduction The duty cycles (current rate, state charge and temperature) of an electric vehicle EV cause degradation of the battery. This means EV battery cannot last a 15-year life which is about the average lifespan of vehicles (Marano et al. 2009; Nagpure et al. 2011; Pollet et al. 2012). The EV battery has to be removed from the vehicle once its capacity degrades to a point that the vehicle range becomes unacceptable. What happens to the EV battery after its removal from the vehicle? Although, currently the numbers of EVs represent a small proportion of the total number of passenger vehi- cles, it has been widely indicated that EVs will experience rapid growth over the coming years. In studies by (Deut- sche bank 2008; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited Global Manufacturing Industry Reports 2010; Brown et al. 2010), it estimated that by 2020 11 million EVs could be sold worldwide with about 6 million sold in North America. From these reports, it means that the EVs will equal about 20 % of the North American automobiles market. As the number of EVs on the road increase, it becomes impera- tively germane that battery from EV has a well-defined end-of-life (EOL) strategy which will be economical and environmentally friendly. Environmental regulations such as End-of-Vehicle directives require the automakers to take extended responsibility for their vehicles and components after use (EU/Directive 2000/53EC, ELV). Under the extended responsibility, automakers are financially or physically responsible for their vehicles at the end of their lifecycles. This new responsibility requires that automakers either take back their products with the aim of reusing, recycling, or remanufacturing, or delegate this responsibility to a third party. Battery as a major component of EV makes it imperative for the automakers to start thinking ahead the appropriate EOL strategy for the batteries before end of their life cycles. The major obstacle to rapid market penetration of EVs at the moment is the higher initial investment required when compared to conventional combustion engine vehi- cles (Wall Street Journal Article 2012), and EV battery is noted as the major factor responsible for the high price of EV (New York Times Article 2011). High cost of EV battery represents a large percentage of total purchase price of EV. Analysts estimated today’s EV battery cost at around $600 to $700 per kW-h and indicated that for EV to M. O. Ramoni (&) Á H.-C. Zhang Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA e-mail: olalekan.ramoni@ttu.edu 123 Clean Techn Environ Policy (2013) 15:881–891 DOI 10.1007/s10098-013-0588-4