According to reports, Mercedes is entering the battery recycling sector. On October 21, the automaker opened a battery recycling plant in southern Germany, making it the "world's first automaker to achieve a closed-loop battery recycling process through its own facilities."
Mercedes stated that the plant can process enough recycled materials each year to produce at least 50,000 new battery modules. A Mercedes EQE electric sedan requires 10 battery modules, each containing multiple individual cells. Therefore, roughly estimated, the plant can provide enough regenerated materials for at least 5,000 vehicles using current technology.
This facility is the first in Europe to use a "mechanical-hydrometallurgical process." Mercedes claims this method consumes less energy and produces less waste compared to the more common pyrometallurgical methods. The company is collaborating with a technology partner named Primobius for this initiative.
Mercedes explained: "The Mercedes battery recycling plant covers all steps from crushing and drying battery modules to processing active battery materials, a first in Europe. The mechanical process categorizes and separates plastic, copper, aluminum, and iron through a complex multi-stage process. The subsequent hydrometallurgical process focuses on processing the so-called 'black mass,' which refers to the active materials that make up the battery electrodes. Through multi-stage chemical processes, valuable metals like cobalt, nickel, and lithium are extracted."
Currently, electric vehicle battery recycling remains a niche industry and is a newly emerging part of the EV supply chain. However, as more electric vehicle batteries reach the end of their lifecycle and demand for battery materials grows, the scale of this industry is expected to expand significantly. By recycling old batteries, automakers can reduce their reliance on existing battery supply chains while also minimizing the need to mine additional lithium, cobalt, and nickel, thereby lessening their environmental impact.
Key materials in electric vehicle batteries have high recyclability. For example, Mercedes claims its recycling process can recover 96% of the raw materials from batteries. This indicates that almost all core raw materials can be reused to produce new batteries, greatly enhancing resource recycling rates.
Recently, other automakers have also entered the battery recycling field. BMW has partnered with the Nevada-based battery recycling company Redwood Materials to handle waste batteries from BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce. Volkswagen and Ford have also established similar collaborations. Thus, many materials in electric vehicle batteries may soon be reused.
