AutoVehicle TechThis battery recycling masterplan could make EVs live foreverMercedes-Benz hopes to recycle up to 96% of its EV battery pack in cars like the Concept CLA ClassWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
AutoVehicle TechThis battery recycling masterplan could make EVs live foreverMercedes-Benz hopes to recycle up to 96% of its EV battery pack in cars like the Concept CLA ClassWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Mercedes-Benz hopes to recycle up to 96% of its EV battery pack in cars like the Concept CLA Class
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The Mercedes Concept CLA Class is just the sort of car that could not only take on theTesla Model 3if it becomes a reality, but could also feature a battery that is almost entirely made of recycled materials.Mercedes-Benzwants to complete its plan for creating a greener, circular manufacturing process after building a new battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Germany. The automaker claims that, once it’s up to speed, the facility will be able to recycle up to 96% of the raw materials contained inside its electric car batteries.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Peak production
At peak production, Mercedes-Benz forecasts that the high-tech plant will be able to deliver 2,500 tonnes of recycled materials from the production-line process. The extracted materials could subsequently be used to manufacture 50,000 battery modules every year, which equates in practical terms to 5,000 new EV batteries annualy.Much of the Kuppenheim workforce will be made up of staff who previously produced transmissions for the company and who have since been retrained to tackle the ambitious recycling task. The plant itself has been built from scratch in just a year and a half, although it will be some time before the facility will be running at full capacity.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Optimum efficiency
Kuppenheim will initially be recycling batteries from the likes of production scrap and test vehicles until its production models start reaching their end-of-life stage, although that could take anywhere between eight and ten years. In the years running up to peak performance, the process looks set to be tweaked and fine-tuned to produce an optimal recycling production lineThe mechanical-hydrometallurgical process involved in recycling EV batteries at Kuppenheim is complex, but much more environmentally friendly than existing processes that use blast furnaces, lots of heat and enormous amounts of energy to get the job done. During the various stages, the process separates plastics, copper, aluminium and iron in a production line-esque series of stages.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Production line process
(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz)
(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz)
Achieving carbon neutrality
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