Towards circular battery supply chains: Strategies to reduce material demand and the impact on mining and recycling

Owing to the drastic increase in demand for battery electric vehicles (EVs) and the social, environmental, and economic issues associated with primary battery material supply chains, the circularity of battery materials has become a burgeoning topic in policy, industry, and academia. However, until the full circularity of battery materials can be achieved through recycling, primary raw materials still need to be mined to meet the increasing demand for battery materials. From a sustainability perspective, it is critical to reduce the overall demand for materials until full circularity can be attained, while also considering the substantial costs of mining and recycling activities. This study contributes to the analysis of how different strategies to reach the circularity of key battery materials (lithium, cobalt, and nickel) for EVs in Europe affect material demand, and it identifies the required mining and recycling volumes to enable and maintain circularity. Assuming sufficient recycling capacity, our analysis showed that combining rapid electrification, smaller EV battery sizes, technology-selective reuse of batteries after the EV life, and the promotion of lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) can save approximately 10 mines and 55 recycling plants reaching circularity between 2035 and 2040, corresponding to savings of over US$35 billion in investments and 32.5 Mt of CO2-equivalents compared to the baseline scenario.