An electrically powered StreetScooter truck at the opening of the new production facility in Düren
Image: EPA
What happens to the batteries of old electric cars? So far there has hardly been any recycling. Achim Kampker, co-founder of Street Scooter GmbH and chair holder at RWTH Aachen University, sees a way out.
Mr. Kampker, at your chair you are working, among other things, on making battery production for electric cars more sustainable. Recycling plays an important role, and by 2030 at the latest, according to forecasts, there will be a lot of end-of-life batteries. But up to now there has hardly been a recycling cycle that is also economical. Is the industry running out of time?
It’s not long now until 2030. But the focus so far has been on building other processes. In fact, all of the experts are still working on how to actually build cells and get them into the vehicle. Recycling is a small seedling that we are only beginning to take care of. If you did that intensively, started now and built up capacities, I don’t think we would have any problems. This can be solved technologically. But it’s a question of time. We have to make the explosiveness clear, free up resources immediately and set priorities. Also because the recycling processes are still very different.