Actually, the Li-ion batteries are recyclable, although I think at this point it really isn't economic (not unlike recycling glass).Absolutely. Like others have said, they are planning by 2024. They started with the new GM Hummer.
Kind of looking forward to it since I love the instant power. Not a big fan of all those batteries ending up in the landfills after they are depleted of the useful energy (I’m pretty certain they aren’t recyclable, but I could be wrong). When we do get an EV, I plan to outfit our house with solar panels to keep it charged (and hopefully have enough energy to power our house in addition to live off the grid).
JB Straubel, a cofounder of Tesla, founded a company called Redwood Materials, aimed at making the battery recycling process a paying enterprise. I believe he is in the process of planning a big building in NV to do recycling and materials manufacturing for battery makers. If he has his way, he will be recycling battery materials at scale in the next few years.
Having said that, I suspect it will be a long time before recycled battery materials will be competitive with newly mined materials, although with a stroke of a pen, our masters in Washington can make it the primary input to new batteries.