I don't trust these estimates. By 2050 there's no way regular ICE cars will be common. Once any given region goes past about 33% electric vehicles gas stations won't be profitable anymore and will shutter forever. When that happens it'll be like falling dominos as gas prices go up and more people will purchase electric vehicles out of necessity as ICE vehicles will become unaffordable.
I also seriously doubt these estimates are taking into account the fact that battery technology and the rate of battery manufacturing is improving at an exponential rate. Yes, the curve is shooting up that fast!
Also, this title is missing a big problem that all vehicles have: The tires are one of their biggest sources of pollution.
It's hard to answer your question entirely right now, but many batteries end up in non-car applications for a few years before they run out of useful life. A car battery with 50% of its original 80kwh is still a LOT of juice.
So even before recycling there is a LOT of reuse possible.
But ultimately when it comes to the recycling process, as grids continue to go carbon-free, the amount of energy used to recycle batteries becomes irrelevant as long as there is an ecological upside.
