Battery demand is growing and so is the need for better solutions to allow for its sustainable adoption along the value chain.
Lee Soo-jin explains.
The South Korean government is accelerating efforts to be more economically sustainable by implementing measures to increase EV batteries that can be reused.
During an economic ministerial meeting held on Wednesday, the government announced that it will make performance testing mandatory for batteries before removal starting in 2027.
“The government will establish an institutional framework to utilize used batteries from electric vehicles at the end of their life cycle as a resource rather than waste.”
Performance testing for batteries is currently required only after they are removed, but the government is aiming to expand the scope of batteries that can be repurposed and reused under the new regulation.
With this change, EV owners will now have more options if they choose to replace old batteries with repurposed batteries instead of brand-new batteries.
And they will also be able to be compensated for their batteries based on a more accurate and detailed battery assessment.
This comes as the Ministry of Environment projects that there will be more than 100-thousand waste batteries each year starting in 2030 with the growing number of registered EV vehicles.
Global society has also already moved towards implementing measures that will increase the amount of batteries that can be repurposed, reused, and recycled.
Under the European Union Battery Regulation, adopted in 2023, consumers will be able to remove and replace batteries in their electronic products at any time of the life cycle starting 2027, and from 2025 onwards, certain levels of valuable raw materials in batteries such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel are required to be recovered.
And changes to regulations in other sectors were also announced during the meeting,
including plans to designate another area in addition to Coex and Gwanghwamun Square as an outdoor advertising zone sometime in 2026.
That’s part of the goal to create a South Korean version of New York City’s Times Square in Seoul.
Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=273113
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