Dutch car maker Stellantis has teamed up with nuclear materials company Orano to recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries. They have agreed to form a joint venture to handle end-of-life EV batteries and scrap from gigafactories in Europe and North America.
Stellantis secures additional access to cobalt, nickel and lithium for manufacturing new batteries.
The duo said the JV capitalises on Orano’s low-carbon technology for the recovery of all materials from lithium-ion batteries, and the manufacturing of new cathode materials. The joint venture will produce black mass. This can be refined in Orano’s hydrometallurgical plant to be built in Dunkirk, France.
The materials could be re-used in batteries, thus closing the loop of a circular economy.
Stellantis aims to increase recycling revenues ten-fold, with more than €2 billion ($2.4 billion) coming from circular economy revenues by 2030. It plans to become a carbon net zero company by 2038.
