Battery-demand measures projected to avoid 6–7.2 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2050
SCIENCEUnverifiedUpdated:
A modeling study reportedly finds that making fewer new lithium-ion batteries—through longer-lasting EV batteries, restrained growth in battery capacity, ride-sharing, and second-life use—could avoid more CO2 than production-side improvements through 2050.
Scenarios for battery life, size, and reuse
According to the report, researchers modeled the lifecycle emissions of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage through 2050, using regional demand and electricity-generation projections.
Their scenarios estimate that extending EV battery life, limiting further average battery-size growth, ride-sharing, and repurposing end-of-life EV batteries for energy storage could reduce demand for newly made batteries and avoid 6–7.2 billion tonnes of CO2 from 2024 to 2050.
The study modeled supply-side improvements to battery production separately from strategies that reduce demand for new batteries; it did not describe an achieved emissions reduction.
In the study's 2024–2050 scenarios, demand-reduction measures were estimated to avoid 6–7.2 billion tonnes of CO2, compared with 3.5–4.7 billion tonnes estimated for cleaner battery production.
Emissions measures that reduce manufacturing demand
The reported analysis shifts attention from lowering emissions per battery to reducing the number of batteries that need to be manufactured. These are scenario-based estimates, not emissions reductions already achieved.
Sources
- Ars TechnicaBatteries help reduce emissions, but how do we reduce their emissions?Read source →