Sustainability

CATL has announced a joint venture with Hubei Yihua Chemical Industry Co to build a $5 billion recycling facility in China. This is in addition to a planned European cathode recycling plant in partnership with BASF. SK Innovations is planning to build a major recycling facility attached to one of its international plants following internal development of recycling processes. The company is also partnered with Kia to provide closed-loop recycling. Volkswagen claims to be building recycling capabilities into their Salzgitter plant. Northvolt, a close partner of VW, has built an R&D centre in Sweden with considerable focus on battery recycling. The company claims to have built proof-of-concept batteries from 100% recycled NMC. Renault has entered into a consortium with Solvay and Veolia to develop a closed-loop battery recycling process. Tesla claims to have developed the first-phase of an onsite battery recycling facility at their Gigafactory Nevada site.

OEMs may localize recycling facilities wherever they have production. This can mean recycling facilities in multiple regions (North America, Europe, and Asia). Strategic placement of facilities allows OEMs to maintain a stable supply of battery materials. 60

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