VW unveils ambitious plan to recycle its EV batteries

Germany’s Volkswagen already has bold plans to become a leading electric vehicle manufacturer that makes EVs accessible to all, and is investing €44 billion in the sector in the next five years. Now it’s announcing an ambitious plan to recycle the metals and materials used to make the EV batteries.

That circular journey will start at the Salzgitter factory near Braunschweig, where Volkswagen announces it is building a pilot facility to recover components of existing batteries. It will reduce its carbon footprint by limiting the e-waste and the original materials mining that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage, while providing the batteries needed for the 15 million EVs the company plans in the next few years.

“For ten years now, we have been researching how we can recuperate raw materials. These include, above all, cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel,” said Thomas Tiedje, the VW head of technical planning.

“We already have sustainable battery expertise in the Group and are developing this further,” he added. In fact, the first batteries in the new “I.D.” vehicle line are set to ship late this year, with the recycling capacities ready to go in 2020 under an initial target of recapturing 1,200 tons of materials per year – the equivalent of 3,000 batteries. The highest impacts won’t be seen for a decade, because that’s when Volkswagen expects today’s new EV-model batteries to return for recycling.

“So we prefer to recycle it ourselves and qualify our employees to do this, especially since we expect large batch sizes in the future,” Tiedje said. Ultimately the long-term goal is to recycle 97 percent of all raw materials, above the 53 percent level that Volkswagen has today. The new facility at Salzgitter will boost that percentage to 72 percent.

The EV batteries that return to Volkswagen will be evaluated for one of two pathways. The first is a “second life” option which may include serving as part of a power bank at “pop up” flexible charging stations, such as those seen at festivals or other large-scale events. Similar quick-charge deployment may be available to drivers on long road trips who need the power the reclaimed batteries can offer.

If the second life isn’t an option, the EV battery will be recycled at Salzgitter. “In this process, the individual battery parts will first be shredded, then the material will be dried and sieved, allowing the employees to extract the so-called ‘black powder,’” the company said. “This contains the valuable raw materials of cobalt, lithium, manganese, and nickel. These materials then just have to be separated individually, after which they are available again for the production of new batteries.”

Volkswagen says that across the Group, its vehicles will need around 150 GWh of battery capacity each year by 2025 – equal to about €50 billion in procurement costs. By choosing the circular economy option, the company says it will save the expensive waste disposal as well as the costs of acquiring raw battery materials, so the Salzgitter plant is expected to be cost-neutral from the start.

The project also helps to insulate Volkswagen from market and geopolitical factors, such as the rising global demand for lithium needed to support the EV transition or a decrease in cobalt mining as determined by producer nations.