BMW Group scores circular economy win with high-voltage batteries
ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS PAN-EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP
BMW
BMW Group scores circular economy win with high-voltage batteries
With electric mobility continuing to gather pace , recycling highvoltage batteries is increasingly under the spotlight . After successfully launching a closedloop recycling system for the reuse of raw materials from highvoltage batteries thanks to the BMW Brilliance Automotive Joint Venture ( BBA ) in China in 2022 , the BMW Group has now hit another milestone on its journey . On 1 November2024 , it launched a pan- European partnership with SK tes , a leading provider of innovative technology lifecycle solutions . The special recycling process recovers cobalt , nickel and lithium from used batteries before returning them to the value chain to make new batteries . This closed-loop system is set to expand to the US-Mexico- Canada region as early as 2026 .
Its long-term partnership with SK tes sees the BMW Group directly involved in the practical recycling processes , allowing it to feed back valuable insights to the development departments . Moving forward , high-voltage batteries from BMW Group development , production and markets in Europethat are no longer fit for use are to be delivered to SK tes in what is the first step towards an effective and sustainable circular economy for batteries . SK tes then converts the old batteries into high-quality metals that can be reintroduced to battery production . The latter process sees the batteries mechanically shredded , during which the metals are concentrated to leave a material called black mass . The valuable materials , namely nickel , lithium and cobalt , are then recovered in a highly effective chemical process called hydrometallurgy .
Among other things , these secondary raw materials will be used for the new GEN 6 drive train .
54 PECM Issue 73