Located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, this plant makes Mercedes-Benz the first car manufacturer in the world with its own dedicated battery recycling plant.
On October 21, 2024, Mercedes-Benz opened Europe’s first battery recycling plant with a new, groundbreaking mechanical-hydrometallurgical process. Located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, this plant makes Mercedes-Benz the first car manufacturer in the world with its own dedicated battery recycling plant.
The plant represents a significant leap forward for the German automotive industry, creating a circular economy in which the same company that produces electric cars also recycles their batteries. This closed system enables the efficient recovery of valuable and scarce materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt in a cost-effective manner.
Mercedes-Benz has invested tens of millions of euros in this new venture, with the aim of countering the recent advances of Chinese competitors in the European EV market and strengthening its position as a leader in sustainability.
“The future of the car is electric, and batteries are an essential part of that. To produce batteries in a resource-saving and sustainable way, recycling is also crucial. The circular economy is a growth engine and at the same time an essential building block for achieving our climate goals!”
Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
The partner that helped Mercedes-Benz realize this project was Primobius, a joint venture between the German factory and mechanical engineering company SMS group and the Australian process technology developer Neometals. The factory (like many car projects in China) receives government funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate as part of a scientific research project with three German universities.
Compared to the current recycling pyrometallurgy process in Europe, this new process is less intensive in terms of energy consumption and material waste. In addition, this factory (like all Mercedes-Benz production locations) operates net CO2 neutral and runs on 100% green energy.
Takeaways
- The German government is proud to support this project as other OEMs in the country, such as Volkswagen, are closing factories
- Mercedes-Benz, which is the first to market with its own in-house recycling facility, should help cost recovery efforts
- This plant can be helpful in determining which engineering processes work and which do not work for battery packs when examined prior to recycling.
- The factory in Kuppenheim has an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. The recovered materials are used to produce more than 50,000 battery modules for new, fully electric Mercedes-Benz models.
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