Mercedes opens recycling plant for electric car batteries
Mercedes-Benz inaugurated an electric vehicle battery recycling plant in Germany on Monday, with the luxury carmaker’s boss hailing an “important milestone” in boosting the sector’s sustainability.
The plant, in the southwestern city of Kuppenheim, will have an annual capacity to recycle 2,500 tons of material, which will contribute to the production of around 50,000 batteries for the group’s electric models.
The plant “marks an important milestone towards improving the sustainability of raw materials,” said Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended the opening of the factory, said recycling is “the key” when it comes to EV batteries.
“The circular economy is a growth engine and at the same time an essential building block for achieving our climate goals,” he said.
With the clock ticking on the EU deadline to phase out the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2035, there is a growing focus in the bloc on the production and recycling of electric car batteries.
In addition to reducing the amount of waste from electric vehicles, recycling is seen as important to increase European sovereignty in the battery sector, as materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium mainly come from outside the region.
Mercedes has invested tens of millions of euros in the new factory and says it can recycle more than 96 percent of battery materials.
The plant includes all steps of the process, from shredding battery modules to drying and processing materials, the automaker said.
The critical metals are extracted individually through a chemical process and used to make new battery cells.
According to Mercedes, the process at the factory uses less energy and creates less waste than in other factories in Europe.
The plant’s opening is rare good news for Europe’s EV battery sector, which has suffered from the decline in electric vehicle sales on the continent.
Swedish battery maker Northvolt, a cornerstone in European efforts to overtake China in EV cell production, announced last month it would cut a quarter of its workforce in Sweden as the country struggles with strained finances and declining demand.
Mercedes, like other German automakers, has suffered recently, lowering its outlook last month due to weak sales in the key Chinese market.
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