Defusing a battery waste time bomb

POLICY FOCUS

- NATTAPHORN BUAYAM PITNAREE POLSOMBOON

A mountain of dead batteries is piling up. If Thailand does nothing, these seemingly innocuous yet toxic batteries will become a national crisis. Properly managed, they can fuel a new economic future.

The expansion of clean energy makes the problem even more acute. Around the world, electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS) are the future, driving the green revolution, and Thailand is racing to catch up. At the heart of it all are batteries.

But batteries don't last forever. And when they die, they don't just disappear. They become hazardous waste — dangerous to the environment, costly to the economy, and harmful to public health. Without a strong, sustainable system to handle them, Thailand could face a new national crisis.

This is no distant threat. It is a ticking time bomb. In the past five years between 2020-2024, more than 600,000 EVs have been registered in Thailand. With an average EV battery life of eight to 10 years, the country will face more than 38,000 tonnes of EV waste batteries by 2031. This will rise to 160,000 tonnes by 2035. By 2045, it will approach 900,000 tonnes.

The trend is accelerating. In the first eight months of this year alone, more than 180,000 passenger EVs with up to seven seats were registered, according to the Department of Land Transport. This makes 51.75% of new cars in this segment.

Imports tell the same story. In the past eight years, from 2017-2024, Thailand brought in more than 700,000 fully (CBU) and semi-assembled EVs (SKD), along with over 3,200 tonnes of parts (CKD) for local assembly.

During 2022-2024, Thailand also imported more than 1.7 million packs of lithium-ion batteries for EVs, along with over 100,000 nickelmetal hydride batteries.