Although Mercedes is now building an entire factory whose sole purpose is to recycle batteries from electric cars, this does not mean that the hunt for elements stops.
Recycling of batteries from electric cars is crucial if the car type is to be a more sustainable business. Mercedes will now build an entire factory for the purpose. But that doesn't mean the brand will stop mining rare earths and metals.
Jörg Burzer, who is a board member at Mercedes, states that the recycling of old battery packs will never be the same as self-sufficiency.
– I think we will always need somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of the materials to come from mining.
Even when recycling is fully implemented around 2040, there will still be a need for a large proportion of new materials from mines, says an interview with Autocar .
Mercedes has established a factory in Kuppenheim, Germany that uses a hydrometallurgical process to recycle batteries. In short, the Germans now use a liquid instead of thermal energy to separate the used battery packs.
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The plant in Kuppenheim is expected to reach an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes within three to four years. According to Autocar, the current limitation on the amount of battery material that Mercedes can recycle is due to Mercedes simply not having enough to recycle from.
– You need to have a certain amount of batteries on the market, because you can start recycling them. So first you have to produce them, and this will be done with raw materials from mines, because you have nothing to recycle.
– The quality standard for our batteries is eight to ten years. So there will be some delay. This means that for the next three, four or five years we will be performing at a lower capacity. But it is very important that we understand the process. And even more important that we understand scalability, says Jörg Burzer.
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