Battery twitter is eagerly waiting to be filled with explanations of why this will never work...

First in the wild! #idbuzz

Brief summary of mine and co-speakers' talks at the China International Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Week:

“The rest of the world”

You never actually own an Ampera. You merely look after it for the next generation😀

When it comes to reuse of batteries and electronics people need to learn this: Your opinion about what’s good or right does not matter as long as it can’t be turned into law or is shared by the whole market. As long as someone else values used product higher than yourself you…

This is a problem when developing end-of-life solutions. Recovering value from what is believed to be landfilled sounds smart. Being able to only offer pennies for products that for others generate dollars is not.

Whether it’s waste batteries or electronics, when people say “go to landfill “they actually mean “We don’t know where they are” Or even more correct “I don’t know where they are” And they don’t know because they don’t understand the global reuse and remanufacturing market.

Chinese EVs were also one of the most important themes in our analysis of the end-of-life market or EVs. Because where cars and batteries are made matter also when they reach end of life and what's generated in the production phase.

Here's a thread I posted a while back describing the situation in Chinese EV industry in 2010 and what they saw coming based on a translated article from that year. It could for some parts describe Europe today. The problem is that it's not.

That's what took Tesla to the top: product and speed. Just like for Tesla the speed of the 🇨🇳EV industry is equally high in the supply chain supporting it which makes the whole beast very powerful. The speed and scale in the supply chain enabled this. But it doesn't drive it.

But what enabled the supply chain? Manufacturing of course. Of phones, laptops and cameras. And a notion that there might be a need for more. Both in China and elsewhere.

What maybe makes me most impressed is the omnipresence (at least in Shenzhen) of GAC's Aion.

Again. For those of us old enough to remember when it wasn't normal to turn to China for inspiration in the automotive industry I think it's the speed that's most impressive. But even more importantly: It's a market that today is driven by product and not by compliance.

Except for Tesla which has a very strong footprint in China there are not many electrics from the West. Have spotted the ID4 three times though.

Here are some models soon available at a dealer near you!

The acceleration of design, model range and output in 🇨🇳EV industry is extreme. It was impressive already before Covid with fast growth of models predominately based on traditional designs, with Nio, Xpeng and Byton as outliers. That was the warm up. Guess the models anyone?

I was a bit surprised to see electric buses in depot not charging. The battery of @BYDCompany early K8 has a range of 250 km and the average daily operation in Shenzhen is 190 km so maybe I shouldn’t. Guess time of day might not be optimal. 15896 electric buses in Shenzhen!

Great to see increasing interest to cover the trade of used vehicles. It's however important to note that this does not exclude EVs. All vehicles are part of this trade and will continue to be that when cars are powered by batteries. Export is already an important route for…

Perks at @SunwodaE, a global top 10 lithium-ion battery manufacturer in Guangdong: Decent garden and gym. Love the PV-covered walking track. First row of employee appartments facing the garden.

Perks at @SunwodaE , a global top 10 lithium-ion battery manufacturer: Decent garden and gym. Love the PV-covered walking track. Employee apparments behind the garden.

Shenzhen in a nutshell: electric scooters in abundance coming with food ordered on delivery apps to people in the high tech corporations and startups in Nanshan, navigating around electric cars in pleasantly silent streets (all but 3 in the video are electric).