China Pivots Away From Second-Life EV Battery Reuse as Fleets Age Out

After rapidly electrifying its municipal transit fleets over the past decade, China is reevaluating policies that encourage repurposing degraded packs for stationary storage. Persistent safety concerns and the falling cost of new cells have made direct recycling increasingly attractive over second-life cascaded use. The policy shift offers early lessons for global markets preparing to manage their own influx of retired electric vehicle packs.