was posted a few hours ago by CNA, a Singaporean public broadcast service. It's got under 9 minutes of content. Their description is "Mongolia has been flooded with cheap, end-of-life hybrid vehicles from Japan, whose batteries fail quickly in the country’s brutal climate and rugged terrain." Before COVID, I remember seeing videos about how Priuses were everywhere in Mongolia. It seems they apparently do have a end of life NiMH battery recycling and disposal problem there. If you want to skip to that, skip to ~3:38 or so. Sorry I'm not active here much any more. I've moved onto BEVs and my current job keeps me very busy. My dad still has my former 06 Prius. It is still on its original HV battery even though it's past the 20 year mark now.
“Heat is the enemy” of the NiMH batteries and Toyota engineering got “less bad” but failed the terminal seals. If the overpressure vent had been done right and a smarter BMS, NiMH cells have unlimited life with a little distilled water every 5-10 years. Opportunities lost. Bob Wilson
This one is wild. Asia’s EVolution: How Mongolia became a dumping ground for Japan’s hybrid electric vehicles - CNA (watch the video on YouTube which is linked from the story). I wonder if demand for replacement packs from Mongolia is driving up the price or causing lack of supply worldwide. Pretty sure Toyota never expected this market.
Maybe merge this thread with: Asia's EVolution: How the Toyota Prius comes to die in Mongolia | PriusChat
Planned obsolescence isn't a lost opportunity its a feature of capitalism and its destroying our planet!
This is silly... Those dead modules have a valuable amount of nickel in them and whoever sells them to a recycler when nickel prices are peaking will make a fortune! Mongolia's government could generate revenue with this problem that's not a problem if they get off their butts and get to work. China is the biggest manufacturer in the world right next door and if Mongolia and China make a deal the problem is solved. But instead people's love of Prius in Mongolia is being framed as a waste dumping problem? That's BS and I bet there's a Nickel producer in China that is having these propaganda articles written because at the right price sending convoys of trucks to haul battery packs in from Mongolia is way more profitable than starting up a new nickel mine. Lastly, my favorite YouTube motorcycle tourist is traveling in Mongolia right now and its amazing to see her ride through such a desolate and beautiful landscape. Then when she heads into a town itstruly delightful to see nearly everyone driving around in a Prius. It's not a bad thing at all, its a beautiful thing. I've yet to see a single broke down Prius in her videos yet. And obviously they have to address DIY smelting operations by finding a buyer who's willing to recycle in a cleaner way. Itchy Boots - YouTube Here's the first of her 4 Mongolia videos uploaded so far:
This is silly... Those dead modules have a valuable amount of nickel in them and whoever sells them to a recycler when nickel prices are peaking will make a fortune! Mongolia's government could generate revenue with this problem that's not a problem if they get off their butts and get to work. China is the biggest manufacturer in the world right next door and if Mongolia and China make a deal the problem is solved. But instead people's love of Prius in Mongolia is being framed as a waste dumping problem? That's BS and I bet there's a Nickel producer in China that is having these propaganda articles written because at the right price sending convoys of trucks to haul battery packs in from Mongolia is way more profitable than starting up a new nickel mine. Lastly, my favorite YouTube motorcycle tourist is traveling in Mongolia right now and its amazing to see her ride through such a desolate and beautiful landscape. Then when she heads into a town itstruly delightful to see nearly everyone driving around in a Prius. It's not a bad thing at all, its a beautiful thing. I've yet to see a single broke down Prius in her videos yet. And obviously they have to address DIY smelting operations by finding a buyer who's willing to recycle in a cleaner way. Itchy Boots - YouTube Here's the first of her 4 Mongolia videos uploaded so far:
It may be that even though the nickel would be valuable it isn't economically competitive with making it fresh from ore. Pull the nickel out of ore and they get nickel and some other minerals, pull it out of batteries they get nickel and a pile of plastic which won't be economical to recycle. I guess they could always shovel the leftover plastic into a furnace at one of their power plants. It can't burn dirtier than the coal they also use.
