Mercedes-Benz opens battery recycling plant

The company said it has invested tens of millions of euros into the construction of the new battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Baden, which has an expected recovery rate of over 96 per cent.

“As a pioneer in automotive engineering, Europe's first integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical battery recycling factory marks a key milestone towards enhancing raw-materials sustainability. Together with our partners from industry and science, we are sending a strong signal of innovative strength for sustainable electric mobility and value creation in Germany and Europe,” Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management at Mercedes-Benz Group, said in a statement.

Mercedes-Benz’s technology partner for the battery recycling factory is Primobius, a joint venture between German plant and mechanical engineering company SMS group and Australian process technology developer Neometals.

The plant is receiving funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of a scientific research project with three German universities looking at the entire process chain for recycling, including logistics and reintegration concepts.