VW Group UK has signed an agreement with battery recycling firm Ecobat to collect and recycle its EV batteries and close the loop in the carmaker’s circular energy economy.
The companies began working together in 2014, when Ecobat started collected lead acid batteries for TPS, the VW Group Genuine Parts provider, and the contract was then expanded in 2019 when Ecobat started working with high-voltage batteries.
Under the new agreement, Ecobat will collect EV batteries from dealers, distributors and end-of-life recycling centres to recycle the lithium-ion battery materials. The batteries will be processed at Ecobat’s new lithium-ion recycling centre in Darlaston, West Midlands. The company also has facilities operating in Germany and Arizona.
“As we move to decarbonise road transport, the number of electric vehicles in our car park is rapidly increasing, and we need to ensure sustainability throughout the lifecycle,” said Sylvain Charbonnier, director of One Aftersales for VW Group UK. “Working with our trusted partners, we are confident we can reassure our dealers and customer that we are responsibly moving towards our electrification goals.”
Eliott Ethridge, vice-president of Global Sales, Ecobat: “Lithium-ion is a fast-growing technology, and our recycling operations can handle everything from small-format batteries to EV batteries. We also recover scrap, byproducts, end-of-life and damaged products to help make lithium-ion battery production more sustainable.”
The agreement is the most recent move in a stream of OEM actions to close the circular economy loop. In October, Stellantis announced it is teaming up with Orano for battery recycling, with Mercedes-Benz and Toyota making similar moves over the past year.
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