Team assesses environmental impact of vehicle batteries

In their first study, the researchers found that nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which are used in most hybrids, have a greater lifecycle impact than either iron phosphate lithium-ion (LFP) or nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries — both of which are now emerging on the market.

Thus a shift to the latter should be encouraged, according to the researchers, who nevertheless caution that their work uncovered a greater impact for all three types than had previously been reported.

‘There’s too little public research on this,’ study co-author Guillaume Majeau-Bettez of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology told The Engineer. ‘On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of private research. Internal LCAs [lifecycle assessments] have been done, but the results are not made public — so that’s one contribution of our research.

‘We’re trying to take a very broad perspective on this so that companies and governments know what the trade-offs are for different technologies.’