With the rapid development of electric vehicles (EV), more and more EV batteries will intensively face the retirement. If they are
treated improperly, EV batteries might pose a serious threat to human health and environment. Therefore, recycling spent EV battery
is full of significance. However, the recycling system and specific policies have not be well established in China. This paper aims
to evaluate several recycling subsidy policies being considered and tested in China for their influences on recycling effect and
economic benefits. We first establish a system dynamics model with game characteristics to describe and analyse the triple-channel
(i.e. manufacturer, retailer, and third-party recycler) recycling system. Recycling subsidy policy and technological progress are then
introduced. The game equilibrium and evolution of the system under different scenarios are investigated. Results show that: 1) both
recycling subsidy and advancement in technology could improve total recycling rate and profit. 2) Particularly, the former can
improve recycling rate of manufacturer while the latter can raise the interest of retailer and third-party recycler in spent EV battery
recycling. 3) Even with gradual withdrawal of recycling subsidy, the system could still maintain steady growth as long as the
technology advances to a higher level. The results could provide support to manufacturer in managing the multi-channel recycling
system and the government agencies in optimizing the recycling policy. The hybrid method, game theory combined with system
dynamics, can improve the limitations of these two methods and can be applied to other complex systems with game traits.