Subsidies

Zhang called on the government to provide stronger, preferential tax policies to boost development of the sector, and said subsidies should be offered to companies or institutes that are tackling the hard issues in battery processing.

Wang Yi, vice-president of the CAS Institute of Science and Development, said authorities should pay special attention to minimum charging times during the batteries' service lives.

When authorities mull standards for minimum charging times, the environmental cost of a battery's entire life cycle, including disposal, should be calculated to ensure that new energy vehicles can play their expected role in environmental protection, rather than posing more risks, he added.

Early last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other government bodies published a guideline on management of the recycling and reuse of spent batteries.

The guideline was aimed at introducing an "extended producer responsibility" system in the industry, under which manufacturers will shoulder the responsibility of disposing of spent cells.

Meanwhile, a guideline the ministry published in July last year pledged to build a "traceability management system" that will cover every procedure related to batteries, from production to recycling and reuse.

Last year, pilot programs were launched in 17 provincial-level regions to explore a mechanism for the management of spent batteries.

Despite the challenges, Sun said he is optimistic about the future of the sector, and he expects China to play a leading global role, given that other countries have yet to see large-scale retirement of lithium-ion batteries.

"Many companies are paying attention to the sector, as are a lot of institutes. The government is also attaching great importance to it. Given this, we should be able to perform the task (of disposal) well. However, it will take time and we will need to bring the advantages offered by different sectors fully into play," he said.