While Chile goes to market to look for operators to increase its lithium production, the largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, China's CATL, announced a US$5 billion investment to build a recycling plant for this type of battery.

The company's announcement comes at a time when the industry expects the supply of materials for battery manufacturing to enter a deficit market. In parallel, the industry points out that, for environmental reasons, in a few years it will become critical to have facilities for recycling batteries from electric vehicles that have completed their life cycle. Recycling will make it possible to recover materials to be reused again in the manufacture of batteries.

A study by the consulting firm IDTechEx estimates that the electric vehicle battery recycling market will reach a value of US$31 billion per year by 2040. According to the consultancy, 50% of battery recycling will take place in China, the main consumer market for electric vehicles. The useful life of a lithium-ion battery in an electric vehicle is estimated at around 180,000 kilometers of travel.