Tata Motors has launched the Nexon EV in India and confirmed three other new electric cars coming in the next 24 months. The Indian Group is looking beyond EV manufacturing to include battery manufacture, charging infrastructure and building a battery recycling plant.

The Ecomotive team of the TU Eindhoven has presented another interesting concept car. Luca is an electric car that is consistently designed for sustainability. With lightweight construction and recycled materials, Luca is designed to conserve resources.

The Swedish company Northvolt, managed by former Tesla manager Peter Carlsson, will dedicate itself not only to the planned mass production of battery cells but also to recycling them with the Revolt programme now presented.

Volvo Buses aims to give its e-bus batteries a second life. In cooperation with Stena Property and Stena Recycling, the company will use its electric bus batteries as stationary energy storage in the Fyrklövern complex in Gothenburg.

British on-street charge point provider Connected Kerb and tyre developer ENSO have announced a strategic partnership. ENSO will supply end-of-life tyres to be recycled into Connected Kerb’s EV smart charging stations.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry has now published detailed guidelines for setting up recycling facilities for batteries of electric cars. The new regulations are likely to pose major challenges for some electric car manufacturers.

Umicore and LG Chem have entered into a multi-year strategic supply agreement for NMC (Nickel-Manganese Cobalt) cathode materials to meet LG Chem’s needs from Umicore plants in Poland, South Korea and China.

The Volkswagen-Northvolt cooperation is taking off as they launch a first pilot production for battery cells at Volkswagen’s Salzgitter plant. Production is to scale up to 16 GWh at the end of 2023 and Volkswagen is investing around one billion euros.

Eramet, BASF and SUEZ are jointly promoting the ReLieVe (“Recycling of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles”) project. It aims to recycle batteries from electric vehicles and enable the production of new power packs in Europe.

Some of the battery cells for the next generation of the EQ electric cars from Mercedes-Benz are to be produced with renewable electricity. The carmaker has now agreed a sustainability partnership with Farasis Energy for this purpose.

The Chinese battery manufacturer CATL and its subsidiary Brunp Recycling are planning to set up a joint venture for cathode materials. In this way, CATL intends to broaden its own supply of important raw materials.

As pedestrian unhappiness about the onslaught of electric kick scooter fleets is mounting, Parisians have taken to throwing the scooters into the Seine to be rid of them. Now a startup called Guppy has emerged to retrieve the submerged scooters using magnets.

JT Energy Systems will be taking over the former Solarworld plant in Freiberg, Germany. The company was founded by Jungheinrich and Triathlon Holding at the beginning of 2019 and aims to create “the largest European production centre for batteries and charging systems in intralogistics”.

Toyota has just announced the cornerstones of a comprehensive battery collaboration with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). This includes not only a “stable” supply of CATL batteries for Toyota but also the development of new battery technologies and more.

A newly founded Technical Committee of the international electrotechnical standardisation organisation IEC will develop uniform standards for electric pedal scooters, monowheels and electric kick scooters starting in autumn this year.

Slovakian-based e-mobility company InoBat and Hungarian oil company MOL announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop hydrogen projects. The focus will be on activities in Central and Eastern Europe.

The recently announced Volkswagen pilot plant for recycling electric car battery materials in Salzgitter, which will go into operation in 2020, is designed to initially produce 1,200 tonnes per year. The project in Salzgitter is to be followed by further recycling plants in the next few years.

Formula E enters a partnership with Umicore of Belgium to implement a battery recycling programme. The batteries from electric cars of the first two seasons of the electric racing series are currently processed by Umicore.

German forklift manufacturer and intralogistics specialist Jungheinrich and battery manufacturer Triathlon Holding have founded a joint venture. JT Energy Systems is to produce and recycle lithium-ion battery systems for both companies.

Volkswagen is now bundling all tasks relating to the development and production of batteries into its Components division, which has n0w assumed responsibility for all aspects of energy storage – from cell production to mobile charging banks, to battery recycling.

The battery of an electric car is often denigrated as rolling hazardous waste in circles still favouring the combustion engine. We were able to convince ourselves of the opposite at the specialist firm Duesenfeld that is disposing of the myth – Battery recycling works deep into the cell. It is only down to politics to […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced the establishment of a research and development centre for the recycling of critical materials such as cobalt and lithium from electric vehicle batteries for example. The aim is to reduce dependence on foreign resources.

A new technology consortium consisting of BMW, Northvolt and Umicore will develop a sustainable value chain for battery cells. The news comes right on the heels of the European Battery Alliance counting their efforts and progress.

A Dutch couple managed to combine two great ideas in one. Not only did they want to go to the South Pole, they also built their own polar explorer, a solar-powered vehicle constructed mostly from recycled plastic that is formed by a 3D printer. Clearly, they are on a world-changing mission.

Redwood Materials, the recycling startup founded by Tesla CTO JB Straubel, is expanding to Nevada. Possible connections to Tesla are rumoured once again, however no official statement has been released.

Japanese automobile manufacturers have announced plans to launch a project in October, in which old EV batteries will be collected and recycled. Corresponding factories are being set up in seven prefectures: Hokkaido, Akita, Ibaraki, Aichi, Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi.

Umicore of Belgium is planning to ramp up its recycling facilities to process electric vehicle batteries. The strategy corresponds with an expected surge in demand for electric cars. Umicore scheduled the expansion for the next decade.

A fully recyclable and light-weight electric car made from flax and sugar – what had been no more than a concept a few months ago, has now grown into a prototype. Awaiting certification, the makers from the TU Eindhoven will then take it on tour in Europe.

BYD entered a strategic cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile to jointly manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Both companies will produce up to 10 GWh of batteries together and sell as well as recycle those through a wide reaching joint venture based in Chongqing.

In the EU funded project AutoBatRec2020 (Automotive Battery Recycling 2020) research has begun to look into ecologically and economically beneficial methods of battery recycling for electric vehicles.