Cadmium batteries to be phased out

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to prohibit cadmium batteries in electrical vehicles during 2005.

This means that Hong Kong exporters manufacturing such batteries for the EU market will need to phase out sales to EU customers by then, or at the very least come up with substitutes, which are, according to Commission experts, already available.

The proposal, tabled in March 2002, will be adopted as an amendment to Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles. Under the terms of this Directive, cars, vans and lorries put on the market after 1 July 2003 will no longer be permitted to contain the heavy metals lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, although there are some derogations in the Directive's Annex II.

While this Annex does not exempt cadmium batteries from the 1 July 2003 phasing-out deadline, it does state that the Commission is required to evaluate the application of cadmium in batteries for electrical vehicles, to take account of scientific and technical developments on the basis of independent scientific analysis, to investigate the availability of substitutes, and the need to maintain the availability of electrical vehicles. This is so because such vehicles are considered to be more environmentally friendly in comparison to their traditional petroleum-run counterparts.

The analysis conducted by EU experts has shown that alternatives to cadmium (NiCd or nickel-cadmium batteries) are already on the market and that the transition to cadmium-free electric vehicles by 1 July 2003 can be completed without any disruption to the market for electrical vehicles.

Alternatives to cadmium batteries exist in the form of nickel metal hydride batteries, and in the longer-term lithium-ion batteries will become available.

Item provided courtesy of tdctrade.com