General joint venture battery company UltiumCells starts battery recycling within the year

Foreign media reported that UltiumCells, a joint venture battery company established by General Motors and LG New Energy, and Li-Cycle, a Canadian battery recycling company, have reached a cooperation. The two parties will start recycling of used batteries this year. General Motors and LG New Energy have invested a total of US$2.3 billion (approximately RMB 16.2 billion) to build a battery plant in Lordstown with an annual output of 30GWh. In addition, General Motors and LG New Energy also announced the establishment of a second battery joint venture company with an investment scale comparable to that of the first company. UltiumCells announced that up to 95% of the waste materials generated during its battery cell manufacturing process (such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite, copper, manganese, and aluminum) can be recycled and used in the production of new batteries Or similar industries. UltiamCells and Li-Cycle plan to implement this recycling program from the end of this year, using Li-Cycle's unique hydrometallurgical process to extract metals such as cobalt and nickel from waste batteries and reduce waste water and exhaust emissions, and then hand over to UltiumCells for reuse. In addition to cooperating with Li-Cycle, General Motors is also cooperating with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Advanced Battery Alliance to promote the recycling of lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. and to study recycled materials that can replace raw materials. General layout of waste battery recycling, the purpose is to supply lithium-ion battery raw material supply channels for its joint venture battery factory, to ensure stable raw material supply and reduce costs, while seizing the opportunity in the waste battery recycling market. According to reports, by 2023, the size of the market is expected to rise from US$1.5 billion in 2019 to US$18.1 billion. In fact, in addition to General Motors, international car companies including Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla, and Toyota are also planning to recycle used batteries as an important source of battery materials. Due to the lack of a complete lithium-ion battery supply chain in the United States, lithium-ion battery materials mainly rely on external procurement. Therefore, the deployment of waste battery recycling will become a raw material supply channel for Panasonic, LG New Energy, and SKI to build battery plants in the United States. In addition, US President Biden recently announced an 'Electric Vehicle Program' worth approximately US$174 billion (approximately RMB 1.1 trillion) to stimulate the development and production of the US electric vehicle industry. In addition to this situation, the recycling of used batteries will also become an important part of the US 'Electric Vehicle Program.'