November 2020

T he inaugural World EV (Electric Vehicle) Day, held in September, was the first of its kind. Designed to take place as an annual event, the day aimed to encourage the acceleration towards pure-electric motoring. World EV Day was a great opportunity to celebrate how EVs are the cornerstone of the world’s transition to a sustainable energy circular economy – and the movement towards battery power in cars is certainly gathering momentum. At the heart of the EV industry is the battery. Lithium ion batteries have finally given us a power source which can be used thousands of times in their first lives, then thousands more in their second lives, before being recycled to do it over and over again. Although there are still emissions from mineral extraction and manufacturing, there are no operational emissions. This means that EVs are helping us to breathe cleaner air in our cities and are helping us to live longer and healthier lives. It’s estimated there are around 1.2 billion vehicles on the road in the world, and in the UK alone there are 38.4 million licensed vehicles on the road. The sooner we switch to electric vehicles and take traditional diesel or petrol cars out of use the better for the health of people and the planet. 12 AFTERMARKET NOVEMBER 2020 BUSINESS www.aftermarketonline.net ELECTRIC DREAMS Following September’s inaugural World EV Day, the future of electric battery use in British motoring is considered as is how the industry might prepare for the end of the ICE age BY Alex Johns, Business Development Manager at Altelium Environmental implications While celebrating the merits of the EV we must also continue to think about how we enable the rest of the new circular economy to ensure we get the most out of both the environmental and economic opportunities created by these new technologies. The key ingredients in an EV battery, including lithium and cobalt, are hard to mine, and come via a challenging supply chain. Happily, they are not consumed when either storing or releasing energy unlike fossil fuels. However, their performance is slowly degraded, so we must seek to understand this process and maximise performance and utility in their first and second lives, before recycling them for a further generation of uses at peak performance. This creates a circular economy which is about to get dramatically larger and more exciting. Built on data Data is fundamental to achieving this. Altelium is working with diverse stakeholders to ensure that data flows to where it is needed to unlock the potential of this new economy, while respecting and protecting the commercial interests of each link in the supply chain. While each stage in the lifecycle helps the planet, it also creates value. Data is the glue that holds it together.