The BMW Group has formed a joint technology consortium with Swedish lithium-ion start-up Northvolt and Belgium-based materials tech giant Umicore, to develop a “complete and sustainable value chain for battery cells for EVs in Europe”.
This announcement comes just weeks after BMW placed a “billion euro” order for EV batteries from China, saying that they “can’t wait” for Europe to build a battery cells industry.
The consortium’s main aim is to establish a closed life cycle loop for batteries to make battery cells sustainable. The partners said this would be achieved by creating a recyclable cell design and manufacturing process that uses mostly renewable energy.