North American electric vehicle company, Tesla, released its 2020 Impact Report, highlighting an estimated 90pc material retention while recycling its electric vehicles’ batteries.
Moreover, the company is implementing a closed-loop recycling system to ensure that all Tesla batteries are recycled for at least 92pc of the material used.
The report covered material retention for both its Model S, produced between 2012-2020 and Model X, produced between 2015-2020. These models contain cylindrical 1865 format, NCA lithium-ion chemistry battery cells, which were supplied by Japan’s Panasonic.
According to the report, an estimated 5pc of the batteries’ capacity is used in the first 25,000 miles and another 5pc between 125,000-150,000 miles, which equals to a total of 10pc material degradation or loss, or 1 pc per 20,000 miles, on average.
Tesla added that degradation is higher at the start and stabilizes with the passage of time. After the mileage gets to 200,000 miles, the degradation remains below 15pc. In the US, a car is usually scrapped after 200,000 miles and the company’s approach is towards designing a battery that can outlive the vehicles.