Volkswagen UK announces new EV battery recycling deal
Volkswagen Group UK has announced a new deal to recycle its used EV batteries.
The UK arm of VW has signed an expanded agreement with leading recycler Ecobat which it says will help its efforts towards a circular energy economy.
Ecobat’s relationship with VWG UK extends back a decade when it began recycling lead acid 12V batteries. Since then it has moved into recycling high-voltage drive batteries, including those from VWG vehicles. The new agreement will see it collect VWG lithium-ion batteries from dealers, distributors and scrapyards. These will then be processed at Ecobat’s new UK lithium-ion diagnostics and disassembly centre in Darlaston, West Midlands.
Sylvain Charbonnier, director of one aftersales for Volkswagen Group UK, said: “I’m pleased to be extending and expanding our 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.”
Across its brands – including VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda – the VW Group accounted for more than one in five passenger car EV registrations in the UK in 2023.
Elliott Ethridge, vice president of global sales for Ecobat, added: “We have been recycling lead batteries for VWG UK for a decade, and we are delighted to be able to extend our relationship to recycle EV lithium-ion batteries.
“Lithium-ion is a fast-growing technology, and our recycling operations can handle everything from small-format batteries to EV batteries. 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.”
Ecobat is one of the world’s leading battery recyclers and the UK plant is its third lithium-ion recycling facility, in addition to facilities in Germany and Arizona, USA.
