Auto maker BMW announced a battery recycling partnership in Europe with SK tes to recover cobalt, nickel and lithium from electric vehicle batteries.
This black mass production is set to expand to the US-Mexico-Canada region as early as 2026. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to introduce trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
BMW’s spokesperson for corporate and governmental affairs, Diana Schaidnagel, told BEST the company does not comment on speculation about what might happen and added: “We also like to point out that the BMW Group does not base our long-term strategic decisions on political policies or incentives.”
She said BMW’s partnership with SK tes only started in November 2024, so it is still too early to provide anticipated processing volume figures. “We will start with the high-voltage batteries that are no longer usable from development, production and markets of the BMW Group in Europe – and we want to expand the model to the US, Mexico and Canada as early as 2026.”
She said BMW chose SK tes as its partner because its capacities will meet the expected demand for the next few years. The recycling processes can also be expanded as demand increases.
The batteries will be mechanically shredded into black mass by a chemical hydrometallurgy process. The secondary raw materials will be used for BMW’s new GEN 6 drive train.
In September, BMW announced a partnership with Redwood Materials to recycle lithium-ion batteries in the US.