Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity

The report identifies critical vulnerabilities in the current linear EV battery value chain, including geographic concentration of minerals, lack of transparency, and inadequate end-of-life infrastructure. It proposes a circular model based on repair, reuse, repurposing, and recycling to mitigate these risks. Key recommendations include the adoption of digital product passports, standardized design for disassembly, targeted policy interventions like extended producer responsibility, and the development of regional value chains to prevent the Global South from bearing disproportionate environmental burdens.

• Current projections indicate that planned mining capacity alone is insufficient to meet the demand for critical minerals by 2035 in a Net Zero Scenario, with forecasted supply meeting only 39% for lithium, 69% for nickel, and 62% for cobalt.
• The EV battery value chain is characterized by extreme geographic concentration and dispersion, with minerals often traveling over 50,000 nautical miles from mine to factory, which obscures environmental and social impacts.
• Current battery design prioritizes first-life performance and cost, often using permanent bonding techniques like irreversible adhesives and welding that hinder disassembly, repair, and recycling.
• The economic viability of EVB recycling is threatened by high capital expenditure, insufficient feedstock volumes in the short term, and volatile mineral markets that can lead to negative profit margins.
• Second-life applications, such as renewable energy storage and grid stabilization, can extend a battery's use by 10-20 years beyond its first life, but are hindered by high diagnostic costs and liability concerns.
• There is a significant risk that lower-income countries will become dumping grounds for end-of-life batteries due to the import of used EVs and a lack of local recycling infrastructure.
• Digital Product Passports (DPPs) and track-and-trace platforms can reduce preprocessing and treatment costs for recyclers by 10-20% by providing composition and dismantling data.
• Triple-bottom-line accounting reveals that EVB recycling provides substantial net positive societal value, potentially creating $5.9 billion to $14.4 billion in global benefits by 2040 based on US feedstock volumes alone.
• The transition to a circular economy will shift employment needs, potentially creating 10 million jobs across the global battery value chain by 2030, with over half located in developing countries.

APA

World Economic Forum (2025). Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Powering_the_Future_2025.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity. 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Powering_the_Future_2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity |date=January 2025 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Powering_the_Future_2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2025powering, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply Chain Challenges with Circularity}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Powering_the_Future_2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }