I had a chance to drive one of those "active" hybrids for a few weeks. I did not enjoy it, but I can see how they would be really useful as commercial vehicles.

If they manage to figure decent battery production and disposal, active hybrids could be an only good thing that came out of this EV nonsense.

It seems EV battery weight tonnage has overtaken conventional lead-acid battery tonnage during the last few years. I asked Grok, see its responses below. I think we have dealt with lead-acid recycling with increasing success, which gives me hope that large scale solutions will be found for Li-Ion and similar technologies.

Large scale recycling technologies are still in development, see Redwood Materials for example.

We'll have to wait and see how successful these efforts are. I'm especially curious about how electrolytes are supposed to be handled, since these make up a non-trivial of the weight (15-20%) or respectively volume (30-40%)

Grok on Lead-Acid

Here's an overview of the production of lead-acid batteries in terms of tonnage over the last few years, based on available data:

2019: Approximately 4.2 million metric tons of lead-acid batteries were produced globally. 2020: Production slightly decreased to about 4.1 million metric tons due to various global economic factors including the impact of the early stages of the global health crisis. 2021: There was a recovery with around 4.3 million metric tons produced. 2022: Increased to roughly 4.4 million metric tons, reflecting a steady demand in automotive and industrial applications.

Please note, these figures are approximate as exact numbers can vary based on different reports and might not account for all minor producers. The data reflects a general trend rather than precise annual production.

On Li-Ion, LiFePo4, etc.

2020: Approximately 100,000 metric tons of lithium were used in EV batteries. Considering lithium makes up around 2-3% of the total battery weight (depending on battery chemistry), this would suggest roughly 3.3 to 5 million metric tons of batteries were produced. 2021: Lithium use increased to about 110,000 metric tons. Extrapolating with the same percentage, this would mean approximately 3.7 to 5.5 million metric tons of batteries. 2022: The demand for lithium in EV batteries was around 120,000 metric tons. This would translate to roughly 4 to 6 million metric tons of batteries produced. 2023: Lithium demand for EV batteries reached about 150,000 metric tons, suggesting a production of around 5 to 7.5 million metric tons of batteries.

These numbers are rough estimates based on the following logic: The percentage of lithium in batteries can vary slightly with different chemistries like NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) or LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate), but a range of 2-3% is generally accepted. Battery weight includes all materials, not just lithium, hence the significant multiplication to get total battery tonnage.

Would be neat to convert a Tesla to gasoline and then calculate and post all the economic and environmental benefits of such.