Volkswagen Group UK Ltd has signed an agreement with leading global battery recycler Ecobat to collect electric vehicle batteries from dealers, distributors and end-of-life recycling centres and extract lithium-ion battery materials from them for re-use.
According to VWG UK the agreement will ensure the UK’s largest automotive Group is doing all it can to boost sustainability, closing the loop to a circular energy economy.
Ecobat has been working with VWG UK since 2014 when the specialist started collecting lead acid batteries for TPS, the Volkswagen Group Genuine Parts provider to the independent motor trade. The contract was expanded in 2019 to encompass high-voltage batteries, and since the company’s UK Diagnostics and Disassembly Centre in Darlaston in the West Midlands was opened, it has processed and upgraded many thousands of batteries.
Under the new agreement, Ecobat will collect collect the high-voltage EV batteries using its own ADR compliant vehicles and them process them at its newly-opened UK lithium-ion recycling centre – Ecobat’s third lithium-ion recycling facility joining facilities operating in Germany and Arizona, USA.
Director of One Aftersales for Volkswagen Group UK, Sylvain Charbonnier, is pleased to be extending and expanding the group’s relationship with Ecobat. “As we move to decarbonise road transport, the number of electric vehicles in our car parc is rapidly increasing, and we need to ensure sustainability throughout the lifecycle – working with our trusted partners, we are confident we can reassure our dealers and customers that we are responsibly moving towards our electrification goals,” Charbonnier said.
Ecobat Vice President of Global Sales Elliott Ethridge is delighted to extend a relationship with VWG UK that has lasted a decade. “Lithium-ion is a fast-growing technology, and our recycling operations can handle everything from small-format batteries to EV batteries,” he said.
“We also recover scrap, byproducts, end-of-life, and damaged products to help make lithium-ion battery production more sustainable – our expertise in recycling and recovering scarce battery materials will benefit both Volkswagen Group and the environment,” Ethridge added.
