Nickel-based batteries: Impact and additionality

Forest, coal and cadmium: the costs behind nickel

What this tab covers The impact and additionality lens: what it displaces on the grid, who gains and who bears the burden along the supply chain, and what happens at end of life.

Nickel-based batteries offer little additional grid decarbonisation today. Their impact questions concern cadmium handling and nickel mining in Indonesia, and their recycling record is among the best of any battery type.

Grid decarbonisation versus fossil displacement

Unfavourable

Nickel batteries mostly replace diesel generators for backup rather than shifting renewable energy, so their decarbonisation role is small. In vehicles, NiMH remains the drive battery of many Toyota hybrids: in 2021 Toyota launched a bipolar NiMH battery in the Aqua with about twice the output of its predecessor (1.5 times per cell, 1.4 times more cells in the same space). Hybrids cut fuel use, but the wider vehicle market is moving to lithium-ion.¹⁴

Toyota bipolar NiMH output vs previous pack About 2 times¹⁴

Just transition and local community impact

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Indonesia's nickel boom has brought investment and jobs, but Climate Rights International reported in 2024 that at least 5,331 ha of tropical forest had been cleared in nickel concessions on Halmahera, that the Weda Bay industrial park had built at least five captive coal plants since 2018, out of twelve planned, and that residents described land seizures. Indonesian output rose an estimated 13% in 2025. Cadmium comes mainly from zinc smelters, so supply follows zinc, not battery demand. Cadmium exposure is an occupational hazard in battery plants and informal recycling.¹²¹⁵

Indonesian nickel output growth, 2025 About 13%² Forest cleared in Halmahera nickel concessions At least 5,331 ha¹⁵ Captive coal plants at Weda Bay park At least 5 built since 2018, of 12 planned¹⁵

Circular economy and end of life

Favourable

NiCd recycling is well established: USGS says secondary cadmium comes mainly from spent consumer and industrial NiCd batteries, and a US company recovers cadmium from both. The EU set a recycling efficiency target of 80% for NiCd batteries by end 2025, 90% nickel recovery by 2027 (95% by 2031), and portable battery collection of 63% by 2027 and 73% by 2030. Only limited rare earths are recovered from batteries, which weakens NiMH circularity.¹³⁶

EU NiCd recycling efficiency target 80% by end 2025⁶ EU nickel recovery target 90% by 2027; 95% by 2031⁶ EU portable collection target 63% by 2027; 73% by 2030⁶

Sources

Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cadmium US Geological Survey, 2026
Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Nickel US Geological Survey, 2026
Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Rare Earths US Geological Survey, 2026
Batteries and waste batteries: summary of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 European Parliament Legislative Observatory, 2023
Toyota to launch all-new Aqua (bipolar nickel-metal hydride drive battery), 19 Jul 2021 Toyota Motor Corporation, 2021
Indonesia: huge nickel project driving climate, rights and environmental harms (release of the report Nickel Unearthed) Climate Rights International, 2024