Porsche pilots high-voltage battery recycling

German automaker Porsche has launched a pilot project that aims to recover valuable raw materials from high-voltage batteries after their use in vehicles and to test a potential closed-loop raw material cycle.

For the long term, the automaker plans to establish a recycling network for high-voltage batteries in collaboration with external partners.

The pilot project is divided into three phases to test the process for large-scale applications.

In the first phase, high-voltage batteries from development vehicles are mechanically shredded at the end of their use and processed into black mass. The resulting granulate mixture contains raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium. The project has so far produced around 65 tons of black mass.

The black mass will be further refined and separated into the high-quality raw materials Porsche requires for high-voltage battery manufacturing.

In the third phase, Porsche aims to produce high-voltage battery cells with a defined proportion of recycled materials and test their potential use in its vehicles.

“We strive to increase our independence from volatile and geopolitically unstable raw material markets,” said Barbara Frenkel, Executive Board Member for Procurement at Porsche.

Source: Porsche