TREATMENT OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY WASTE IN CHINA: A REVIEW OF EXISTING POLICIES

This paper reviews existing policies for supporting the treatment of electric vehicle (EV) battery waste in China, and identifies some of their major shortcomings that policy makers may like to consider while making policy decisions. The shortcomings of existing policies identified in this paper include: 1) no clear provisions for historical and orphan batteries; 2) no target for battery collection; 3) unclear definition of the scope of authority among various central and local agencies involved in the regulation of waste battery treatment; 4) unclear requirements for data auditing and verification for tracking the entire life cycle of EV batteries; 5) limited consideration of the challenges to ensure stakeholder cooperation; and 6) no explicit specification of the mechanisms for financing waste battery treatment. This paper also makes some practical policy suggestions for overcoming these shortcomings.

Automated summary

Current policies for supporting the treatment of electric vehicle battery waste in China have several major shortcomings that need to be addressed, including unclear targets for battery collection, undefined scope of authority among regulating agencies, and lack of explicit mechanisms for financing waste battery treatment.Suggestions for overcoming these shortcomings have been proposed in the paper.