California to vote on bill to hold EV battery producers accountable for end-of-life management, recycling

California State Senator Ben Allen, who introduced the bill alongside Senator Dave Min, spoke with Fastmarkets on Wednesday August 21 about the bill and the need to push for more recycling efforts.

“We all know that the EV market is massive, it has to grow,” said Senator Allen. “We know how important it is for our climate goals, electrification, all the rest. We also know that there’s been some pretty problematic reports of sourcing for many of the component materials that go into EV batteries from all over the world, and we know that there is such an opportunity if we can create more coherence in the system.”

SB 615 passed out of the Appropriations Committee on August 15 and it was last amended on Friday August 23. “It’s now going to be on the floor [of the] Assembly next week,” the senator said, “then we’ll bring it over to the Senate side for a final vote.”

Should the bill pass the legislature by August 31, California’s governor Gavin Newsom would need to decide whether to sign the bill into law, and if so, to sign it by the end of September, Allen said.

End-of-life management

Section 2 of the bill states that “that any program designed to ensure proper end-of-life management of vehicle traction batteries first strives to reuse, repair, or remanufacture batteries when possible. When that is not possible, the program shall ensure that batteries are either repurposed or recycled. When a battery is no longer used in any application, the program shall ensure the batteries are recycled. Disposal of these batteries should be discouraged and ultimately eliminated in support of achieving a circular economy.”

Allen said consumers do not always “think about all the implications associated with the end of life of these products,” but “there’s a lot of implications and whether we decide to just turn them into something good, or reusable, or just toss it in the landfill where it’s a toxic waste makes a massive difference.”

“At the very least,” he said, “we ought to be not only be pushing greater domestic production, but we also ought to be doing everything we can to ensure that all the good stuff within those batteries right now is being repurchased [and] reused every single time.”

Section 4 of the bill states that battery suppliers will be required to report information regarding the sale, transfer or receipt of a vehicle traction battery or module to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and fully fund the cost of collection of batteries where they are required to handle end-of-life management.

The bill also includes provisions for a civil penalty on those who are not in compliance of the bill of up to $50,000 per day, or $100,000 per day “if the violation is intentional or knowing.”

Should the bill pass, the DTSC would have until July 1, 2028, to adopt the necessary regulations to implement and enforce the bill’s provisions.

The senator described the current market for batteries and battery recycling as “a bit of a wild west with no formal framework, and that’s what we’re trying to address here with this bill.”

“Getting the producers [to have] skin in the game to help provide a strong backdrop for some of these more tricky end-of-life products is really important” for this market, Allen said, adding that “at the end of the day, it’s about propping up the domestic market so we can better leverage [the Inflation Reduction Act] funding.”

“Producers are the ones who have the most tools in the toolkit,” Allen said. “We need them to help us. They need to be thinking about end of life…. they need to design for circularity, for recyclability.”

Industry reaction to Senate Bill 615

In terms of industry reaction to the bill, Allen said that “we’re working with a big industry, there’s going to be lots of different voices” but noted that both Ford Motor and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have expressed support for the bill.

“To have one of the big three [automakers] not only neutral but in enthusiastic support is a real sign of our progress,” he said. “I think they realize how immensely important this is for, not only our broader environmental goals but for their own business model. If we had a better system in place to better collect a lot of these key minerals, especially lithium, cobalt, nickel, it would just make the whole system work better and reduce costs ultimately for them in terms of production of the next generation of EVs.”

When looking at industry support, Allen said: “No one ever wants to have a program imposed upon them, but” there is some understanding of “the wisdom of government action because you always have the free rider problem. You want to make sure that everyone” takes part.
“If you’re going to do it, you want to see the others get involved,” he said.

“I appreciate the collaborative work that we’ve done with folks from industry, and labor and others,” Allen said. “This is ultimately going to help up solve a big problem. I’m glad that everyone saw the wisdom of this.”

“Nobody loves getting regulated,” he said, “even if people understand the need for it. But I think…we found a rubric that people are comfortable with.”

“I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about our progress given the support we’ve gotten,” he said, but “you never know until the thing is done.”

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