European EV battery startups achieve recycling breakthroughs

Two European startups said on Thursday they had hit milestones in recycling electric vehicle battery materials that will be needed to meet European regulations, reduce China's dominance of the entire battery supply chain and lower CO₂ emissions.

Starting in August 2030, European carmakers' EV batteries must include a minimum of 6% each of recycled lithium and nickel, and 16% of cobalt, rising five years later. This has spurred a race to challenge China's lead in battery recycling.

British battery recycling startup Altilium said research from London's Imperial College showed small batteries made with its recycled cathode active materials perform as well as or better than those made with virgin materials from Chinese suppliers.

Cathode materials typically include lithium, cobalt, nickel or manganese.

COO Christian Marston told Reuters the company's recycled materials reduce by 70% CO₂ emissions versus new materials and cut costs by 20%.

"This is a real technical breakthrough that helps de-risk the use of recycled materials for carmakers," Marston said.

Altilium's investors include the corporate venture arm of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile's lithium business and Japanese trading house Marubeni.

The company is working with Tata Motors unit JLR on EV battery cells made with recycled materials from old Jaguar i-Pace EVs.

Separately, Germany's tozero, which has raised €17m (R327.4m) from investors including Honda, is working on a pilot plant for recycling graphite and is talking to global carmakers about supplying them as it scales up.

The startup's hydrometallurgy process for recycling graphite is "net zero" for emissions if renewable energy is used, which will help carmakers because graphite accounts for 40% of the carbon footprint of any lithium ion battery, tozero CEO Sarah Fleischer told Reuters.

She said tozero is talking to global carmakers about supplying them with recycled graphite.

The company will build a pilot plant within the next two years and by 2027 aims to produce around 2,000 tonnes of recycled graphite annually, enough for around 50,000 EVs.