China has become the largest electric vehicle (EV) market in the world since 2015. Consequently, the lithium-ion battery (LiB) market in China is also expanding fast. LiB makers are continually introducing new types of LiBs into the market to improve LiBs’ performance. However, there will be a considerable amount of waste LiBs generated in China. These waste LiBs should be appropriately recycled to avoid resources’ waste or environmental pollution problems. Yet, because LiBs’ type keeps changing, the environmental impact and profitability of the waste LiB recycling industry in China become uncertain. In this research, we reveal the detailed life cycle process of EVs’ LiBs in China first. Then, the environmental impact of each type of LiB is speculated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. Moreover, we clarify how LiBs’ evolution will affect the economic effect of the waste battery recycling industry in China. We perform a sensitivity analysis focusing on waste LiBs’ collection rate. We found that along with LiBs’ evolution, their environmental impact is decreasing. Furthermore, if waste LiBs could be appropriately recycled, their life cycle environmental impact would be further dramatically decreased. On the other hand, the profitability of the waste battery recycling industry in China would decrease in the future. Moreover, it is essential to improve waste LiBs’ collection rate to establish an efficient waste LiB industry. Such a trend should be noticed by the Chinese government and waste LiB recycling operators to establish a sustainable waste LiB recycling industry in the future.

In recent years, China has started to develop electric vehicles (EVs) and has become the largest EV market in the world since 2015. Accordingly, the lithium-ion battery (LiB) industry has also been developing quickly in China. However, the Chinese government has decided to cancel the subsidy policy on EVs, which makes the EV market in China unpredictable in the future. Moreover, there will be a considerable number of end-of-life (EoL) EVs and waste LiBs generated in China. These wastes should be appropriately recycled to avoid resource waste or pollution problems. Nevertheless, the quantity and type of EoL EVs and waste LiBs has not been obtained. This research aims at unravelling the trend of EV sales and the volume and type of EoL EVs and waste LiBs in China. We found that it is fair to predict that EVs will increase as the Chinese government has planned even without the subsidy policy. Moreover, we estimated the number of EoL EVs and waste LiBs number based on their calendar lifespan and found that there will be 1.36 million EoL EVs and 11.36 million waste LiBs generated in China in 2030. Furthermore, most of these waste LiBs will be of the nickel cobalt manganese oxide type of ternary LiBs. However, due to the flow of second-hand vehicles from economically developed cities to less economically developed cities, only 400,000 EoL EVs and 3.4 million waste LiBs will be recycled through the formal recycling route. Such information is necessary when evaluating the environmental effect or profitability of the EoL EV and waste LiB recycling industry.

In recent years, Next-Generation Vehicles, especially Hybrid Vehicles (HV) are increasing rapidly in advanced countries. In fact, not only advanced countries but also some developing countries also own a large quantity of HV by importing secondhand HV from advanced countries. For instance, Mongolia is importing a huge amount of secondhand HV from Japan every year. On the other hand, there will be a huge amount of waste HV in Mongolia that needs to be recycled properly soon, and yet, this problem has been neglected and the number of waste HVs in Mongolia is still unknown. The purpose of this research is to propose a method to predict the End-of-Life HV number in Mongolia. This research finds that the Japanese vehicle deregistration rate can represent vehicles’ durability and can be used to estimate End-of-Life HV number in Mongolia. The result shows that there will be a huge amount of End-of-Life HV as well as Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries generated in Mongolia from now on, even more than in Japan, which is the largest HV market. It is urgent for the Mongolian government to build a proper End-of-Life HV recycling system now, and international cooperation on resource circulation is also expected.

Rapid urbanization combined with increases in per capita income have led to the world's motorization. Car manufacturers have been increasing their outputs in response to demands for fuel-efficient cars. New-generation vehicles (NGVs) like hybrid and electronic vehicles have emerged with significantly reduced weights and robust computerized systems. Likewise, the use of efficient batteries like nickel–hydrogen or lithium-ion batteries has been integrated into NGVs. Expectedly, a large volume of these cars will be classified as end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) in the near future. The European Union, Japan and Korea have developed ELV recycling systems based on the extended producer responsibility principle, designed to recover used car parts, scrap metal, batteries, etc. However, countries like Mongolia and the Philippines are inundated with imported used cars, including used NGVs, which damage the environment due to their poor emissions and hazardous waste components. Air pollution and lead soil contamination are some of the environmental problems associated with the proliferation of ELVs. This paper tackles the opportunities and challenges of ELV recycling as espoused by the European Union, Japan and Korea and its potential application in developing countries. It also discusses emerging trends in the effective utilization of waste batteries from NGVs.