FORD EV BATTERY RECYCLING PASSPORT PILOT PROGRAM ANNOUNCED

[roamtheworld]

https://fordauthority.com/2022/10/ford-ev-battery-recycling-passport-pilot-program-announced/

https://everledger.io/

Ford recently revealed its EV battery master plan, which aims to secure the raw materials neededto support its goals of producing two million all-electric vehicles annually by 2026 via a large number of suppliers across the globe, as well as its own joint venture, BlueOvalSK. Ford also plans on switching to lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries – which utilize fewer of those raw materials – over the coming months. Ford EV battery recycling efforts will also play a big role in these plans moving forward, and now, the automaker has announced a new pilot program that aims to accomplish precisely that in partnership with Everledger, a digital transparency company.
This Ford EV battery recycling passport program will utilize Everledger’s technology platform to EV batteries throughout their lifecycle to ensure responsible management during use and recycling at the end of their useful life. Everledger uses a range of technologies including various types of auto ID, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to accomplish this. During the manufacturing process, Ford batteries and their inner modules are tagged with 2-D data matrix codes, which are then scanned with a cell phone by each organization as the battery changes hands. These scans allow otherwise separated links in the value chain to report on and access information about a battery’s location, chemistry, and other attributes and activities taking place such as transportation, disassembly, and recycling.

The purpose of this tracking is that it will allow Ford to gain visibility on out-of-warranty batteries, validate responsible end of life recycling, and gain access to data such as recycled critical minerals produced and associated CO2 savings. Everledger and Ford will use the battery passport solution to track batteries in various EV models for six months, working together with U.S. lithium-ion battery recyclers Cirba Solutions and Li-Cycle.
“The Everledger Platform and its battery passport functionality positions stakeholders along the supply chain to verify a battery’s material provenance, chemistry, and identity, and measure its sustainability and environmental impact alongside creating a multi-billion dollar global market for used batteries that maximizes the recovery of raw materials and accelerates the development of climate-friendly mobility,” said Leanne Kemp, Founder and CEO of Everledger. “A fully connected and transparent battery passport, secured by blockchain technology, allows electric vehicle manufacturers and owners to not only track and report the lifetime journey of each battery, but increasingly where those critical minerals originated and how those mines stack up with the use of renewable energy, enabling brands like Ford to more easily report on climate action and Scope 3 emissions.”

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[Logal727]

Lost me at blockchain, sounds like a scam

 

[JonathanEzor]

Lost me at blockchain, sounds like a scam

Blockchain is just a secure and reliable method for recording and preserving a sequence of information, in this case the path a battery takes from manufacturing through installation and use to disposal/recycling. It will allow, for example, detection of faulty modules if someone tries to reintroduce them into a battery.

Just because blockchain methodology is *also* used for other buzzwordy things does not reduce its value here and elsewhere in supply chain management. {Jonathan}

 

[Logal727]

Blockchain is just a secure and reliable method for recording and preserving a sequence of information, in this case the path a battery takes from manufacturing through installation and use to disposal/recycling. It will allow, for example, detection of faulty modules if someone tries to reintroduce them into a battery.

Just because blockchain methodology is *also* used for other buzzwordy things does not reduce its value here and elsewhere in supply chain management. {Jonathan}

I’ve worked in Enterprise environments and get a lot of pitches and you’re right that it’s a buzzword, and it just raises red flags as a grift a lot of the time.

 

[Calgary MACH E]

If you have a Coinbase account you've probably seen 500 videos just like that one.

 

[roamtheworld]

Lost me at blockchain, sounds like a scam

Blockchain get thrown around but is interesting use case here. Blockchain is a tech looking for good use cases

 

[Blue highway]

Blockchain get thrown around but is interesting use case here. Blockchain is a tech looking for good use cases

There has to be some value in blockchain beyond what we already have.

We already have a serial number, the car VIN, warranty records, who the owner is, who the manufacturer is, the manufacturing lot... etc... etc... etc... On the commercial side, what is the value that justifies an additional tracking system?

Other than enabling crime (the primary purpose of bitcoin) blockchain is a solution looking for a problem... I've been pitched these solutions weekly for most of a decade... none of them seem to make business sense.

 

[roamtheworld]

There has to be some value in blockchain beyond what we already have.

We already have a serial number, the car VIN, warranty records, who the owner is, who the manufacturer is, the manufacturing lot... etc... etc... etc... On the commercial side, what is the value that justifies an additional tracking system?

Other than enabling crime (the primary purpose of bitcoin) blockchain is a solution looking for a problem... I've been pitched these solutions weekly for most of a decade... none of them seem to make business sense.

The basic concept of bitcoin has value. Often new things are adopted by customers in unintended ways.
I have worked at several large tech companies and we have delivered support for blockchain in various products but adoption has been sparse to date.

Tracking and accountability will be required to make the environmental solutions being rolled out today viable moving forward. Calling out the impact of batteries on the planet will continue until we prove they are being handled correctly.

 

[SuperRob]

I’ve worked in Enterprise environments and get a lot of pitches and you’re right that it’s a buzzword, and it just raises red flags as a grift a lot of the time.

Yeah, in a majority of cases, blockchain is being used to attract a specific audience (e.g. dumb money). But as has been noted by Jonathan, there are legitimately useful ways to use blockchain to collect and verify stuff as it moves through the supply chain.

The wife of one of my old work colleagues started a coffee company a few years back. She's using blockchain to both ensure the origin of her coffee is what is claimed, but also make sure the farmers all the way back at the beginning of the supply chain get a fair cut of the profits. She can trace the sale of every bag all the way back to the grower. It's pretty amazing.

So yes, a lot of the time blockchain is being misused, but you can't immediately dismiss it at a scam or grift. Ford has a great use case for it here.

Side Note - As much as blockchain is associated with crypto scams, blockchain has been used to track transactions back to the scammer and prove the grift. Kind of a live by the sword, die by the sword sort of thing. Transactions are only anonymous if you can keep the entire chain anonymous, and that's harder than people think. If someone can identify you on the chain because you accidentally leaked info, they can follow you on every link in the chain.

 

[dml105]

I don't get at all why blockchain or AI would be mentioned in an article about recycling batteries. The problem from what I understand is not tracking the batteries, but actually processing the batteries once their usable life has expired. But recycling batteries = good.

 

[Blue highway]

I don't get at all why blockchain or AI would be mentioned in an article about recycling batteries. The problem from what I understand is not tracking the batteries, but actually processing the batteries once their usable life has expired. But recycling batteries = good.

Bingo - the advocates for blockchain consistently bury the headline.

 

[Blue highway]

The basic concept of bitcoin has value. Often new things are adopted by customers in unintended ways.
I have worked at several large tech companies and we have delivered support for blockchain in various products but adoption has been sparse to date.

Tracking and accountability will be required to make the environmental solutions being rolled out today viable moving forward. Calling out the impact of batteries on the planet will continue until we prove they are being handled correctly.

blockchain is sparsely adopted because the value is not there. That doesn't mean it doesn't work, it means that there are existing ways to deliver most if not all of the value. It is not needed to recycle or adequately track EV batteries.

Now if you want to run a ransomware scheme it's awesome... tracing can be easily obfuscated which is why bitcoin remains the common denominator in ransomware attacks.

 

[Xadion]

Its a hedge bet that whatever this is becomes a wide and industry standard adopted platform.

So this will be the VHS or Betamax of battery tracking... Nothing more

Now if this was about how they will introduce a trade in recycling program, where let's say they intake degregated batteries and give a full capacity refurb for low cost to ford ev owners, then cool.

 

[dml105]

Its a hedge bet that whatever this is becomes a wide and industry standard adopted platform.

So this will be the VHS or Betamax of battery tracking... Nothing more

Now if this was about how they will introduce a trade in recycling program, where let's say they intake degregated batteries and give a full capacity refurb for low cost to ford ev owners, then cool.

Maybe I'm just missing this -- what is the necessity for battery tracking with respect to recycling? And how is simply printing the chemistry on each cell insufficient?

I'm trying not to be a blockchain skeptic, but it really does seem like a solution looking for a problem in most instances.

 

[Xadion]

Maybe I'm just missing this -- what is the necessity for battery tracking with respect to recycling? And how is simply printing the chemistry on each cell insufficient?

I'm trying not to be a blockchain skeptic, but it really does seem like a solution looking for a problem in most instances.

I do not know I only speculate (ie guess) but it has to essentially do with you (the recycling company) can "know" what your buying/intake with a certain level of certainty to then more accurately and quickly recycle or rebuild it.

If it goes down to the per cell level, say, once I take in 4 batteries that were swapped out because they degraded say 30% on average, and I rebuild 1 new battery, its per cell components can still be tracked and accounted for.

If so, that also let's companies say 'no all the batteries that 'died' did not go to a landfill we successfully recycled X%' as now there is not really a way to track or process that

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