Formula E signs on to complete battery recycling
Date: Mar 4, 2019
They say racing improves the breed. Usually that means learning to make cars go faster or handle or stop better.
Electric-car racing series Formula E aims not just to improve the performance of electric cars but also to inspire the world to buy cleaner, more efficient cars.
Formula E announced a partnership in February with Belgian recycling company Umicore to recycle all the batteries used in Formula E race cars.
Formula E collected spent batteries from racing teams and sent them to Umicore where they will be sorted, and dismantled. Then Umicore will put them through a proprietary smelting and hydrometallurgical process to recover all the metals.
MUST READ: As used electric-car batteries set to flood market, Automakers ramp up reuse efforts
Series organizers say the metals in the battery are infinitely recyclable, so they can be made into new batteries over and over.
Such battery recycling has been a key question for electric cars. EV batteries comprise a large portion of the materials used in electric cars and their production consumes resources—more resources than building a gas engine, according to automakers.
