China Starts Battery Recycling Program, Pilot In 17 Cities And Regions

As part of an effort to counteract an emerging pollution threat, China has launched a pilot program for electric vehicle battery recycling in 14 cities and regions around the country. Car producers are encouraged to established recycling centres and service outlets, as well as to co-operate with battery producers, used car dealers, and scrap merchants in order to build a regional recycling system. 

Lithium battery waste as a whole could reach around 170,000 tonnes by 2020, as predicted by experts. The ministries involved with recycling these batteries believe that the entire industrial chain from production to end of life needs to be involved, and there will be new policies to encourage recycling such as tax incentives, along with a "traceability management platform" that tracks the life cycle of electric car batteries. 

By 2020, China expects to be selling 2 million electric vehicles per year.This is based on the fact that China's electric vehicle market is rapidly growing, with 413,200 new energy vehicles (NEV) produced just in the first half of this year, just over 50% more than the same period last year.