In their joint study on e-mobility , the consulting firm Roland Berger and research company Kraftfahrwesen Aachen urge vertical cooperation with suppliers of raw materials and a sustainable solution for the recycling of waste batteries. While just about one million pure e-vehicles and plug-in hybrids were on the roads in 2017, the study forecasts more than 20 million newly registered e-cars annually by 2030. Thus, the dependence of automobile corporations on cell and battery manufacturers is growing. Two-thirds of this market is shared by suppliers from China, Korea, and Japan.

In addition to their own battery production, the study also considers that car manufacturers have the duty to develop a sustainable solution to handle discarded batteries. A promising approach is their use as a buffer for overcapacities of conventional power generation. As predicted in a study by the German Federal Association of Renewable Energy Sources (BEE) and Deutsche Messe AG, second-life batteries will be able to store a total of 25 gigawatt hours of electricity in ten years’ time. Thus they could be used to absorb both generation and load peaks.