Detroit appears to be serious about producing hybrid vehicles. A consortium funded by GM, Ford and Chrysler is developing methods of recycling batteries used in hybrid and electric vehicles.
The Big 3's United States Council for Automotive Research’s (USCAR) Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) hired OnTo Technology of Bend, Oregon to develop processes for recycling the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion batteries used in current and future vehicles with electric motors.
"We recycle advanced batteries to recover micro- and nanomaterials for reuse in new batteries. It goes beyond the usual smelting solution, where these valuable materials are burned, and only the crude metal mixtures are recovered,” said Steven Sloop, CEO of OnTo in a press release.
I'm not sure what percentage of the batteries used in the Prius and hybrids are recycled today, but the auto industry believes whatever is being done today isn't enough. Kudos to Detroit for looking for help in preventing materials that can be salvaged from being dumped into a landfill.
Source: AutoIndustry
