Mercedes-Benz has just completed an investment worth several tens of millions of euros in battery recycling and value creation in Germany. The manufacturer has just opened the first battery recycling plant in Europe with an integrated mechanical and hydrometallurgical construction process. This allows the manufacturer to complete the battery recycling chain with its own factory, and create a true circular economy.
Mercedes completes the cycle of its electric batteries
Concretely, unlike existing processes, the expected recovery rate of the mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling plant is more than 96%. Valuable and rare raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt can be recovered in such a way that they can be used in new batteries for future fully electric Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
For this, Mercedes Benz has joined forces with various partners, namely Primobius, a joint venture between the German factory, the mechanical engineering company SMS group and the Australian process technology developer Neometals. Mercedes says the project addresses the entire recycling process chain, including logistics and reintegration concepts, with an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes.
“Mercedes-Benz has set itself the goal of building the most desirable cars in a sustainable manner. As a pioneer in automotive engineering, Europe’s first integrated mechano-hydrometallurgical battery recycling plant marks a key milestone in improving the sustainability of raw materials” explains Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG
The process takes care of covering all stages, from crushing the battery modules to drying and processing the active battery materials. The mechanical process sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminum and iron. “Additionally, like all Mercedes-Benz production plants, the recycling plant operates in a carbon-neutral manner. It is powered by 100% green electricity” indicates the manufacturer. The roof of the factory benefits from a photovoltaic installation with a power of more than 350 kilowatts.
Incidentally, let’s remember that the bank Goldman Sachs predicts a 50% drop in the cost of an electric car battery in 2026, compared to 2023. A drop which would be attributed to technological innovation, but also to the continued drop in prices. price of the raw materials necessary for the manufacture of these same batteries.
