Opens recycling plant in Germany. But given the longevity of its vehicles, it may take a while for there to be an ROI, even with the cost of battery materials. . .

By Gary S. Vasilah

As is well known the battery in an electric vehicle is the priciest part of the vehicle.

That’s because of the raw materials that the battery is made of. Things like lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Contrast that with an internal combustion engine, which has a block made out of an aluminum alloy or an iron variant. The cost of a pound of nodular iron to produce an engine block is about 10 cents and an aluminum alloy for a block about twice that.

The cost of the aforementioned battery materials are much, much higher.

So while recycling of iron and aluminum is common—after all, there are literally billions of light-duty vehicles that have been built in the last 20 years alone, so there’s a lot of recycle—it is still early stages for recycling electric vehicle batteries.

To that end, Mercedes-Benz has just opened a battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Germany.

It is based on something called “an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process” that is said to have a material recovery rate of >96%.

Apparently the mechanical part includes shredding, sorting and separating. The hydrometallurgical process separates out the cobalt, nickel and lithium.

Compared to the pyrometallurgic process that is used by others in Europe, the Mercedes’ approach is said to be less energy-intensive and because green electricity is used to power the plant, it is also net carbon-neutral.

The plant has an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes that results in materials that can be used to produce 50,000 battery modules.

According to Mercedes it has invested “tens of millions of euros” to build the plant.

In reporting its 2024 third-quarter earnings the company noted: “The market environment for battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales remained subdued with competitive pricing in important markets.” Globally, the group has sold 148,500 electric vehicles so far this year.

Clearly this integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process is part of the long game, because it will take a while for the Mercedes EVs to be taken to the scrap yard in considerable numbers.