‘Up to 96 percent reusable’
Mercedes-Benz today started construction of a battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Germany, near Stuttgart. Initially, the brand will build a hall in which it will completely disassemble battery packs, after which there will also be a hall in which the disassembled battery packs can be reduced to reusable raw materials to manufacture new batteries. The first part of the factory should come into operation later this year.
The world – and especially that of cars – is currently crying out for batteries and the raw materials for them. But what should happen to all the battery packs that are now being built? Mercedes-Benz is starting to formulate an answer to that question by building a battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Germany, for which the first work was carried out today. The intention is that there will eventually be a factory at that location that can fully process batteries into reusable raw materials at one location. Such a place does not yet exist in Europe.
The brand therefore wants to lead the way in setting up the most sustainable possible production chain for electric cars. For this it received a subsidy from the German Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection. The project involves tens of millions of euros. These should lead to the first of several halls of the new factory being completed and operational later this year. Mercedes will dismantle used battery packs in that hall. In a hall to be built later, which should be operational in 2024, the brand will then use modern technologies to separate the materials from the dismantled batteries and process them into reusable raw materials for new battery packs. Ultimately, 96 percent of the material of battery packs must be reused. In addition, Mercedes intends to use only green energy for processing the packages, of which it is expected to need a lot. How much exactly, leave the brand in the middle.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl