Classic car future

Another short sighted issue with EVs is the cost of recycling the toxic remains. Those who make rules about things see a well off individual buying an EV and using it up and then having the wherewithal to pay $1500-2000 to have it recycled. The cycle that we car folks all know will be a well off person buys the car, keeps it for a few years and sells it used to somebody with less money. When the car becomes less than dependable, it will get sold off to someone with even less money. It might even get a 4th owner and when the car dies and it costs too much to fix, they will look into recycling, get sticker shock and park the car in the woods, or dump it somewhere where it will slowly deteriorate until the toxic stew in the batteries leaks out into the ground water. Now do this a few hundreds of thousands of times and think of the results.

There is a simple fix here - Charge the original owner (the one with the most money) a recycling fee up front. The fee is linked to the VIN and put in a fund to pay for recycling. When the car dies the last owner contacts the recycling program and gives them the VIN. The money to recycle is already in the system and someone comes and takes the car away, no muss, no fuss.