Joseph Heller coined the phrase “Catch-22” for situations exactly like this: Batteries are a huge part of the cost of electric vehicles, so everybody’s working 24/7 to get that cost out, which means purging expensive metals like cobalt whenever possible. The only problem is that lithium, by itself, doesn’t have much value — it’s around $3.50 a pound. Cobalt, with many important strategic uses, is what makes the battery economically viable for recycling.
There are secondary life uses for lithium-ion batteries, including as storage for off-peak renewable energy. But it would be awfully useful if lithium itself could be recovered and reused at a profit. Sadly, that’s not true today.
Source: plugincars.com