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Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

economist.com

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Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#21

Post by baybal2 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #19
baybal2 wrote: post #17

I would very much like to see where they got their breakdown. The "electrical vehicles by weight" looks pretty much like Tesla Model S breakdown. Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel. The engine block is the heaviest part in an ICE vehicle, but it's usually made of grey iron, and not really steel, with German cars some times using silicon-aluminium, or much rarely magne…

I don't know how you come to this conclusion, but the engine block in a modern passenger car is definitely not the heaviest part. The engine block itself is often incredibly light, even a V8 made from cast iron would only be a few hundred pounds. The body (or unibody) of any modern car is far heavier, given that it has so many functions and safety features as part of its design.

If you count body as a part, then yes.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#22

Post by speedgoose »

baybal2 wrote: post #17

I would very much like to see where they got their breakdown. The "electrical vehicles by weight" looks pretty much like Tesla Model S breakdown. Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel. The engine block is the heaviest part in an ICE vehicle, but it's usually made of grey iron, and not really steel, with German cars some times using silicon-aluminium, or much rarely magne…

Not alone. The BMW i3 has an aluminum frame.

The Tesla model 3 and model y are steel by the way.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#23

Post by alex_young »

agumonkey wrote: post #20
WJW wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recycling of old cars is already pretty well developed. You drain the old fluids and strip any parts with secondary market value, then compact the whole thing and tip it whole into a steel melting furnace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHKUpwMboY

yes but the rate of recycling may explode due to EVs (potentially)

Especially when one of the lithium packs winds up in the furnace.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#24

Post by pjc50 »

agumonkey wrote: post #20
WJW wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recycling of old cars is already pretty well developed. You drain the old fluids and strip any parts with secondary market value, then compact the whole thing and tip it whole into a steel melting furnace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQHKUpwMboY

yes but the rate of recycling may explode due to EVs (potentially)

Unlikely due to secondary market value, unless there's another wave of "scrapping subsidy" schemes. More likely to be exported.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#25

Post by WJW »

alex_young wrote: post #23
agumonkey wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes but the rate of recycling may explode due to EVs (potentially)

Especially when one of the lithium packs winds up in the furnace.

Given the rate at which these electric arc furnaces convert electricity into heat already, I don't think that a few hundred gigajoule extra from a random battery pack is going to matter all that much.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#26

Post by teddyh »

plebianRube wrote: post #6
WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

That sandwich you're eating? Made from old recycled half eaten sandwiches.

> That sandwich you're eating? Made from old recycled half eaten sandwiches.

For reference, that’s a Futurama quote.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#28

Post by kingsuper20 »

dkarp wrote: post #15
WJW wrote: post #5

Pretty much everything is a raw material of the future. Even household waste has much higher concentrations of metals than most ore deposits.

People don’t realise this when they think of landfill. In future, we could have an effective way of mining landfill for resources. Some forms of recycling now are highly inefficient and it’s conceivable that we’d be better off utilizing landfill and recycling with better techniques later.

>People don’t realise this when they think of landfill.

I expect you'll see increasing mining of tailings piles as things like gold extraction technology improves.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#29

Post by kingsuper20 »

WJW wrote: post #25
alex_young wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when one of the lithium packs winds up in the furnace.

Given the rate at which these electric arc furnaces convert electricity into heat already, I don't think that a few hundred gigajoule extra from a random battery pack is going to matter all that much.

Also, I expect that an industry that deals with removing eleventy seven airbags to keep the children safe can handle main battery removal.

Re: Old electric cars are a raw material of the future

#30

Post by kingsuper20 »

baybal2 wrote: post #17

I would very much like to see where they got their breakdown. The "electrical vehicles by weight" looks pretty much like Tesla Model S breakdown. Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel. The engine block is the heaviest part in an ICE vehicle, but it's usually made of grey iron, and not really steel, with German cars some times using silicon-aluminium, or much rarely magne…

> Tesla is alone in choosing aluminium, while the rest of the industry goes with steel.

Somebody better tell the F150 designers.

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