ACE battery recycling strategically partners with Spiro in Africa

Pan-African electric motorcycle manufacturer Spiro has selected US company ACE Green Recycling as a partner. Spiro manufactures and sells electric motorcycles with swappable batteries in Kenya, as well as boasting operations in Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Tanzania. With this partnership, ACE will recycle lithium-ion battery material from Spiro's old batteries and waste material from battery production in Africa.

Spiro is moving fast with a lot of ambition. In 2024, Time magazine named it one of the 100 most influential businesses. The company is building an ecosystem with charging stations and battery exchange stations throughout Africa.

In 2023, the Ugandan government decided to replace 140,000 motorbike taxis with purely electric vehicles within five years in the capital, Kampala, with Spiro electric motorbikes. In 2024, the company expanded into Africa’s largest market, Nigeria. The company’s rapid expansion is less surprising given that the CEO, Kaushik Burman, previously led global expansion at Gogoro, the Taiwanese company expanding globally with battery-swapping electric scooters at an eye-watering pace.

Spiro currently reports 22,000 electric motorcycles delivered on its website. The rapidly expanding company has gained an important partner in ACE Green Recycling to help ensure the sustainability of the batteries. ACE and Spiro will work together to establish recycling centres near Spiro’s collection points using ACE’s proprietary, environmentally friendly technology.

Spiro is taking a three-pronged approach to the circular economy of batteries. The pan-African company is extending battery life through advanced battery management systems (BMS) that optimize performance and longevity. The startup is also heavily engaging with the reuse of batteries for second-life applications, such as energy storage in infrastructure projects. Finally, Spiro understands the value of recycling materials at the end of life to recover valuable resources for reuse.

Spiro CEO says of the new partnership with ACE Green Recycling, “Together we are building a closed-loop battery ecosystem for Africa, ensuring that every battery we deploy has a responsible end-of-life solution. It’s a big step forward for clean energy and sustainability on the continent.”

The CEO points out that Spiro’s focus on circularity has been at the core of deploying the largest electric mobility fleet in Africa. He extrapolated, “This collaboration reinforces our commitment to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) while building a circular value chain that reduces carbon emissions and supports local economic development.”

ACE is well matched with Spiro in that it, too, is expanding rapidly. The US company just opened India’s largest recycling plant.

“Leveraging our innovative and green LithiumFirst technology that efficiently and effectively recycles lithium-ion battery material, including LFP, we are focused on scaling our modular solution to support a circular value chain that meets the growing demand for recycling,” said Nishchay Chadha, CEO of Ace. 

Including reporting by Florian Trieß

prnewswire.com

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