Reuters MAR 2024 / by Gilles Guillaume / Read original article
French automaker Renault (RENA.PA), is in advanced discussions with potential partners to extract and recycle lithium and other metals from used electric vehicle batteries, a company executive said, as it seeks to reuse more of the strategic raw materials.
While recycling car parts is increasingly common, Renault is aiming to be the first European automaker to also recycle batteries on an industrial scale.
“In Europe, there is currently… nobody who can claim to recycle used batteries in a closed-loop to reproduce nickel, cobalt and lithium to make new batteries,” said Jean-Philippe Bahuaud, chief executive of ‘The Future Is Neutral’ (TFIN), Renault’s environment unit. Discussions with specialist companies who can partner on the recycling are at an “advanced” stage, he said in an interview ahead of the ChangeNOW conference in Paris this week.
Most of the metals used in batteries that power EVs are mined and processed outside Europe, and there are growing concerns about the region’s heavy reliance on China for the materials.
There are also significant cost-savings to be made from recovering the metals, which account for as much as 70% of a battery’s cost. Batteries, in turn, represent up to 40% of the vehicle’s cost.
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