Recycling and reusing components of the battery systems significantly changes the total impact of the battery technology on the environmental footprint of the vehicle. The nickel-metal-hydrid battery used in our 2001 Prius, worked flawlessly for over a decade, and that car is still on the road (now 13 years) with a second owner. Much has been written about how the battery makes hybrids a poor cousin to the state-of-the-art diesel power train, but rarely do they consider the battery "cost" beyond its initial use in the car. The total environmental impact of the vehicle includes the manufacturing, operation, maintenance and end of life reuse/recycling phases of the product. When considering the CO2 footprint, evaluating only the operating phase emissions will skew the data. Considering the manufacturing phase without also considering the end-of-life phase also skews the data. Not everyone lives in areas powered by coal generators, so these burdens are not equal for all BEV users, especially those where hydro-electric generation is the norm.
