Mercedes-Benz to Begin Work on Battery Recycling Plant in Southern Germany

It is planned to have a capacity of 2,500 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries per year. The car manufacturer’s technology partner is the private battery recycler Primobius.

According to a spokesperson, Mercedes wants to start the recycling process itself this year. That involves dismantling the batteries, crushing the component parts and adding water to them. Valuable raw materials such as nickel and cobalt are then extracted from this mixture with the help of acids.

Experts say that the big difficulty in battery recycling is to automate such processes on a large scale.

Another German car giant, Volkswagen, has been testing similar processes for two years and is hoping to be able to recycle 1,500 tonnes of battery material per year.