Important news for the green economy world.
Volkswagen is just starting to ramp up production of electric vehicles based on its MEB platform, but the automaker is already thinking about how to dispose of battery packs when these vehicles reach their end of life.
VW announced that the Salzgitter plant can recover up to 95% of the battery's raw materials for potential reuse, including lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
Until now, technology has only been able to maintain battery recycling at up to 60%.
So far, the Salzgitter plant can only handle 3,600 batteries per year. But if the process is technologically debugged, then VW will create such enterprises around the world, incl. and in the USA.
VW's challenge is to beat Tesla in the global marketplace. Incl. therefore VW is launching an electric vehicle plant in the US, Tennessee, in 2022.
If Volkswagen manages to be the first to create an almost complete recycling of batteries, this will give it an important competitive advantage in terms of PR, since for consumers in developed countries "green technologies" and concern for the environment are an advantage when choosing a product.