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[Richard230]

My guess is that this should be a good business to be in, with a bright future. I would be nice if it could be duplicated in the North American market. However, I won't be holding my breath until that happens: https://electricmotorcycles.news/zero-motorcycles-partners-with-reneos-on-battery-recycling-project/

[JaimeC]

Considering the batteries are the most expensive component of our bikes, it WOULD be nice if there was some kind of "buy back" program after five years that could be put towards the purchase of replacement batteries...

[Fran K]

Which way do you expect it to go, like an automobile or tractor battery that there is a core charge of 10 to $15 in the size I deal with or like a pick up or hay wagon tire that has a recycling fee of from $2 to $10 depending on what entity I choose to deal with.  I think the core charge is higher than what one can get at a scrap yard perhaps also called a recycling business.

Prpbably unlikely motorcycle batteries will be the most likely to have replaceable cells compared to things like electric garbage trucks or busses.

[NEW2elec]

They should be used for home or other industry type storage before they are chewed up.

Pack might not get you 60 miles of range but it can still store solar or wind power.

[Crissa]

Core fees are designed to create a 'value' to something that might otherwise go negative in value.  So that it's exchanged instead of trashed.

Sure, a battery being used for a static storage is a better use for it than being chipped, but there needs to be a process to get it from one shape to another.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

It is nice to see Zero giving recycling a go. However, I imagine that recycling their battery packs is pretty labor intensive and expensive. I assume that the process in Europe will be subsidized by the EU.

Here in California, the state's consumer product recycling program has collapsed, apparently due to poor management, although they are still collecting recycling fees and deposits, which seems to just disappear into the state's general fund. I kind of doubt that Zero will set up a similar program in the U.S. unless it can be subsided by some entity or agency.   

[Crissa]

The state is still paying out deposits, just, the middlemen who were moving the materials have run away.  It had gotten very profitable doing away with sorting and just sending it to China, and they don't take unverified loads anymore.

The buyers still exist, the ships still have cargo space (just less) and we still have sorting facilities, we just need to hire up staff again, and make aure municipal trash contractors do what they were paid to do instead of short-circuiting the system with illegitimate underbidding.

-Criss

[ESokoloff]

My guess is that this should be a good business to be in, with a bright future. I would be nice if it could be duplicated in the North American market. However, I won't be holding my breath until that happens: https://electricmotorcycles.news/zero-motorcycles-partners-with-reneos-on-battery-recycling-project/

Hoping it does happen soon (in the North American market)
https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/11/jb-straubel-redwood-materials-battery-recycling-panasonic-amazon/

[Richard230]

My guess is that this should be a good business to be in, with a bright future. I would be nice if it could be duplicated in the North American market. However, I won't be holding my breath until that happens: https://electricmotorcycles.news/zero-motorcycles-partners-with-reneos-on-battery-recycling-project/

Hoping it does happen soon (in the North American market)
https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/11/jb-straubel-redwood-materials-battery-recycling-panasonic-amazon/

I can see recycling lithium batteries on that kind of scale making economic sense. But I suspect that recycling the few Zero battery packs that expire each year is going to be a different kettle of fish. And Energica and Livewire packs even more so.  (H-D just doesn't seem like the kind of company who would want to set up a battery recycling program if they were not forced to do so, unless someone else paid for it, of course.  )

[Crissa]

Well, that's where Redwood's chipper comes in.  After the pavks have failed on the reuse market, the go to be dissolved.

-Crissa