Auto technology has come very far, and one of the latest additions to it is electric cars. These cars run only on the energy stored in their batteries and have almost no exhaust emissions. However, that doesn’t mean electric cars don’t harm the environment.
And since environmental friendliness is related to the process of wrecking cars, you might wonder how electric cars are wrecked. You can find that in this article.
How are normal cars wrecked?
Wrecking a regular vehicle is more or less the same worldwide. First, the wreckers calculate whether it will be more profitable to repair the car or resell its parts. It’s often the latter, so they start individually dismantling the parts.
First, wreckers drain the various toxic fluids inside the vehicle, like mercury and oil. They filter some of the oils to reuse them, while the rest of the fluids are disposed of safely in a way that won’t affect the environment.
Then the wreckers separate the intact parts of the car, both outside and inside, to resell them. This includes the tires, the rear-view mirrors, the engine, the transmission, the headlights, and more. The remaining part of the car, which is of no use, goes through a metal shredder and is turned into a cube, which is then sent to steel industries for further recycling.
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Why is it difficult to wreck electric cars?
Electric cars differ from regular cars in many ways. But the biggest difficulty with an electric car is that parts of it cannot be recycled, and the process of dismantling it can also get difficult.
This Is because electric cars usually run on lithium-ion batteries weighing hundreds of pounds. The contents include cobalt, manganese, nickel, and such components. And the truth is, those can’t be recycled in the same way as glass or lead, and improper disposal of them can seriously threaten the environment.
And even if there were ways to recycle them, they are not very economical. Moreover, different battery makers use different ingredients, so there is no single formula for wrecking an electric car. And these batteries are not recycled; they will have to be dumped, harming the environment.
Do salvage yards take electric cars?
Most electric cars won’t end up in a salvage year, at least not at present or shortly. This is because the value of electric car parts like the Tesla parts is extremely high. So they will usually be put on auction and sold for a price sometimes higher than a whole vehicle.
If, however, you bring your electric car to a salvage yard, some might be willing to take it for a price much lower than what you spent on buying it. But there is a bigger chance of it getting rejected because of all the aforementioned reasons.
