Toronto, Ontario — Renault plans to extract and recycle lithium and other materials from used electric vehicle (EV) batteries with the goal of being the first European automaker to recycle batteries on a large scale.
Chief executive of Renault’s environmental unit, The Future is Neutral (TFIN), Jean-Phillipe Bahuaud recently revealed in an interview in Paris, France that the carmaker is in “advanced” discussions with specialist companies for battery material recycling.
“In Europe, there is currently nobody who can claim to recycle used batteries in a closed-loop to reproduce nickel, cobalt and lithium to make new batteries,” Bahuaud originally told Reuters.
Renault’s TFIN unit has already begun exploring the battery recycling market. Production at the firm’s Flins factory near Paris will end next month and it will transition to producing partially recycled car components and reconditioned vehicles. It will also repair up to 9,000 batteries this year, the automaker claims. These batteries and parts will be sold at a 30 percent discount to new parts.
