Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
Don't mean to kill your buzz, but how much damage is done by mining all those heavy metals and refining them into batteries?
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I've talked to reps from the company that made my batteries along with reps from the USA's largest battery maker and they recycle the batteries that are returned to them as cores inside the USA (each of my lead acid batteries has a $20 core charge/value) and because around 98% of an old lead acid battery is recycled in to a new battery (2% is dirt and slag) the only need for new material to be added is to make up for any increase in demand.
Lithium batteries have a larger core value, around $500 for an 800 pound battery because the metal inside is worth more then lead, but in a lithium battery there is only 7 pounds or so of lithium, the rest is copper, aluminum, plastic and carbon, all of those get recycled and turned in to new batteries, copper and aluminum have the largest environmental impact in the making of lithium batteries, but people seem to be ok with the 100's of pounds of copper wiring in their house and the 100's of pounds per year of aluminum soda and beer cans that are recycled every year, so why get upset that these same metals are being used in a battery to power a car?
I'm also not sure if I would agree with the "ungodly expensive lithium battery" comment, my $900 battery pack in my car that as I already said compares in cost to oil changes and exhaust system in my gasoline car, could be replaced with a lithium battery pack that would last 4 to 5 times as long and cost me 2-3 times as much as the lead acid pack did, lithium batteries have dropped in cost a great deal, to the point where people are buying them and putting them in cars that they are using and coming out with a battery cost that is lower then gas engine maintenance costs on a gasoline car.