Policy system evaluation of power battery recycling for new energy vehicles in China: Evidence from 150 government policy texts (2012–2024)

The formulation of effective policies for power battery recycling (PBR) is critical to promoting resource recycling and ensuring the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry. Based on content analysis, a multidimensional analytical framework comprising policy tools (X), policy objectives (Y), policy implementation bodies (Z₁), and policy implementation phases (Z₂) is employed in this paper to analyze 150 central and local PBR policies (PBRPs) issued in China between 2012 and 2024. The analysis yields four main findings. (1) “Laws and regulations” emerges as the predominant policy tool, reflecting a regulation-intensive and state-led policy configuration. (2) The objective of alleviating energy and environmental pressure prevails (41.4%), while industrial transformation and upgrading receives the least attention (26.7%), exposing a structural mismatch between environmental and industrial objectives. (3) Implementation is overwhelmingly government-led (89.0%), with enterprises and the public contributing only marginally. (4) Policy tools are unevenly distributed across implementation phases, with financial and social-environmental instruments particularly underdeveloped in the current enhanced implementation phase. Therefore, this paper argues that optimizing policy tool combinations and activating market and societal actors are effective strategies for improving the PBR governance system and achieving synergy between economic and environmental benefits.