GM Ventures announced on September 22nd, 2022, that it has made an investment in Lithion Recycling, Inc., forming a partnership agreement between the automaker and the EV battery recycling company.
Together, GM and Lithion will collaborate to pursue a “circular battery ecosystem.” The partnership will focus on validating Lithion’s recovered battery materials for use in the production of new batteries, as well as the potential to acquire battery materials. Additionally, the two companies will collaborate to invest in research and development for both recycling processes and recyclability of future EV battery designs.
“Working with GM marks a key step in Lithion’s commercial development and pioneers a needed breakthrough in the electrification of transportation by enabling a cost-effective and sustainable circularity in the EV battery industry,” said Benoit Couture, President and CEO of Lithion. “This partnership underscores our commitment to enable the transition to a low-carbon economy amidst the fight against climate change.”
Lithion expects that its technology and operations will recover 95 percent of battery materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 75 percent and water usage by over 90 percent compared to resources used and emissions caused by battery material mining processes. These figures were confirmed by a third-party lifecycle analysis.
“GM is aggressively scaling battery cell and EV production in North America to reach our target of more than one million units of annual capacity by 2025, and we plan to eliminate tailpipe emissions from all our new light-duty vehicles by 2035 – so we are building a supply chain and recycling strategy that can grow with us,” said Jeff Morrison, GM Vice President of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. “In Lithion’s technology, we see the opportunity to recover and reuse raw material in our Ultium battery packs, making the EVs we produce even more sustainable and helping drive down costs.”
Earlier this year, GM entered into a partnership with Canadian battery recycling firm Li-Cycle to support materials recycling at its Ultium Cells plant in Warren, Ohio, which recently went online.
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Comments
The recycling in the battery programs start at the time they are built till they are pulled out of the car. The metals are of a value that this will be a big business.
Most automakers have similar plans like this.
Gonna get me some of that Inflation Reduction Act money 💰
Battery Recycling as I said years ago on this site will become a humongous Business by 2030 or so. Building BEV’s will become one closed loop ecosystem. Mining needs to go Full Speed right now….especially in the USA and ASAP. Cannot have China control minerals to the extent that they do right now!!!
I am by no means a Financial adviser, far from it but me personally I am waiting for the day that Redwood Materials goes Public. How can you bet against one of the main Battery Guys from Tesla.
Hopefully GM signs up with Redwood as well. They cannot allow Ford to be the lone Detroit Automaker utilizing them in the Future.