With the booming development of China's new energy vehicle market, the power battery industry has also ushered in unprecedented development opportunities. The recently released "Report on the Development of China's New Energy Battery Recycling and Utilization Industry (2024)" shows that China's new energy battery recycling and utilization capacity has grown rapidly, with a comprehensive utilization of 825000 tons by 2023. As of the end of October 2024, China has cultivated 5 batches of 148 standardized enterprises and established over 10000 recycling service outlets in 327 prefecture level administrative regions across the country. At the same time, industrial development is also facing issues such as insufficient standardization of recycling. How can the power battery recycling industry embrace opportunities and meet challenges? According to the regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, starting from 2016, passenger car manufacturers are required to provide an 8-year or 120000 kilometer warranty for core components such as batteries. Nowadays, this "eight year agreement" is gradually expiring, and a large number of power batteries will be retired one after another. The Industry Research Department of the Battery Recycling and Utilization Committee of the China Electronic Energy saving Technology Association predicts that by 2025, the retired amount of power batteries in China will reach 820000 tons, and from 2028 onwards, the retired amount will exceed 4 million tons. The output value of the waste battery recycling and utilization industry will exceed 280 billion yuan. The global market for recycling and reusing waste power batteries has enormous potential and broad development prospects. The recycling path of power batteries mainly includes hierarchical utilization and dismantling recycling. When the capacity of the power battery decays to about 80% of its initial capacity, although it is no longer suitable for electric vehicles, it can still continue to play a role in energy storage systems, power tools, and other fields, which is called cascade utilization. When the performance of the battery further declines and cannot meet any usage needs, it can be disassembled and recycled to extract high-value metal materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc., achieving resource reuse. Industry insiders admit that retired batteries are an important source of upstream raw materials for batteries such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Recycling retired batteries can help alleviate the pressure of upstream resource expansion and reduce external dependence on key mineral resources. It is understood that the current business models in the power battery recycling industry include third-party recycling models, battery manufacturer recycling models, alliance recycling models led by vehicle companies, and tiered utilization business models. In recent years, China has attached great importance to the development of the power battery recycling industry, and has introduced a series of policies and regulations to promote and regulate the healthy development of the power battery recycling market, promoting the establishment and improvement of the recycling system. Nowadays, this billion yuan blue ocean market has attracted a large number of enterprises to enter. According to data from Qichacha, there are currently 147000 power battery recycling related enterprises in China. Technological innovation is a key force driving industrial upgrading. Through advanced recycling and processing technologies, retired power batteries can continue to play a role in various fields such as energy storage systems, achieving maximum resource utilization and opening up their "second life". Since 2015, Volkswagen Group has been actively exploring the recycling and reuse of batteries in China. In terms of retired battery cascading utilization, Volkswagen Group (China) has jointly launched pilot projects such as low-speed two wheeled vehicle cascading batteries and mobile energy storage systems with Jiangsu Huayou; BYD uses technological means to store and release electrical energy from waste batteries through cascading utilization, while actively exploring the recycling of battery materials. By recycling metal raw materials from waste batteries, they can be reused in the manufacturing process of new batteries; A subsidiary of Foton Motor Holdings has partnered with Batrui Technology Co., Ltd. to develop and utilize battery resources such as waste cells and electrodes, jointly build a retired power battery recycling network, and establish standardized and convenient power battery recycling channels based on relevant industrial chains. The continuous progress and innovation of power battery recycling technology not only bring economic benefits to recycling enterprises, but also provide solid support for the green transformation of the new energy vehicle industry. China has not only made significant achievements in the production and manufacturing of power batteries, but also gradually entered the forefront of the world in recycling technology. The diversified technological route of parallel physical and chemical (wet) methods provides strong support for the efficient recycling of power batteries, "said Liu Lili, a researcher at the Basel Convention Asia Pacific Regional Center of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University. Despite the large amount of waste batteries in China, the standardization of recycling is insufficient. Some enterprises with incomplete qualifications profit from rough processing of old batteries, which not only affects the recycling rate of waste power batteries, but also brings environmental pollution and safety hazards. Fu Qiang, President of Batrui Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that the "small workshops" for recycling waste batteries have little investment in environmental protection, production equipment, and other aspects. They often cut and break batteries physically to obtain raw materials, which not only causes resource waste but also pollutes the environment. Large enterprises with qualifications related to power battery recycling invest more in factory buildings, equipment, environmental treatment, digitalization, and other aspects to ensure the efficiency and quality of power battery recycling, resulting in higher costs compared to small workshops. In addition, legitimate enterprises collecting and processing waste lead-acid batteries need to pay a certain value-added tax, while small workshops may not necessarily pay it and can offer higher recycling prices, leading to the phenomenon of bad money driving out good money. Yang Lin, Secretary General of the Battery Recycling Committee of the China Electronic Energy Conservation Technology Association, introduced that due to the auction method of the highest bidder being used for the sale of retired power batteries, some small workshops invest less in environmental protection and safety, and can buy scrapped batteries at a higher price, leading to the saying in the industry that "regular armies" cannot compete with "small workshops". Taking ternary aluminum shell lithium battery packs as an example, in late June 2024, small workshops purchased them for around 22000 yuan/ton, while large enterprises purchased them for around 19000 yuan/ton. This price difference has led to more waste power batteries flowing to small workshops. Although many 'small workshops' have closed recently, they still occupy about 50% of the market Cao Guoqing, Deputy Secretary General of the Resource Compulsory Recycling Industry Innovation Alliance, stated that in the context of mixed resources in recycling institutions, the current recycling rate of power batteries in China is relatively low. According to a survey report released by the Development Research Center of the State Council in 2023, as of 2023, the standardized recycling rate of power batteries for new energy vehicles in China is less than 25%. The long-term mechanism still needs to be improved, and the standardized development of industries cannot do without policy support. In June 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a symposium on the comprehensive utilization of new energy vehicle waste power batteries throughout the entire industry chain. Discussions were held on the design, production, use, maintenance, scrapping, dismantling, and comprehensive utilization of power batteries, and it was stated that the next step would be to conduct enterprise research and expert discussions, aiming to accelerate the improvement of the long-term mechanism for the comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries. In August 2024, the Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revised and formulated the "Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries in New Energy Vehicles (2024 Edition)", and solicited public opinions. Compared with the "Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries in New Energy Vehicles (2019 Edition)", the new version has comprehensively refined the requirements for "technology, equipment, and process" to "comprehensive utilization capability", and further standardized the hierarchical utilization enterprises and recycling enterprises; At the same time, clear normative standards have been proposed for enterprise layout and project site selection, comprehensive utilization capability of enterprises, quality of graded and recycled products, environmental protection situation, safety production and personal health, social responsibility and vocational education, as well as enterprise supervision and management. In the medium to long term, China's dependence on foreign countries for battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel is high. Vigorously developing the power battery recycling industry is of great significance for China's resource strategic security and the development of circular economy Yang Lin stated that relevant departments should introduce relevant policies at the appropriate time to promote the cascading utilization of retired power batteries and increase research and development in cascading utilization technology. Liu Lili suggested that the development of relevant standard systems should be accelerated and the existing management system should be improved; Improve technology and management level, enhance China's position in the international power battery recycling industry; Accelerate the establishment of a scientific and effective recycling system to ensure the standardized recycling of power batteries from the source. Several interviewed experts expressed that the problems faced by the recycling and utilization of power batteries require joint efforts from multiple aspects. Measures such as policy guidance, technological innovation, building a sound recycling system, strengthening corporate responsibility and publicity and education should be implemented to gradually promote the healthy development of China's power battery recycling industry. (New Society)