Volkswagen outlines EV battery recycling strategy

The company plans to build one million EVs per year by 2025.

Volkswagen has outlined plans to begin recycling electric vehicle batteries in the coming years..

The company expects to build one million EVs per year by 2025. With an expected battery pack life of 10-15 years before replacement, and potentially limited supplies of battery materials as EVs increase in popularity, the automaker hopes to use recycling to bring down costs.

"As electric vehicles become more commonplace, digging those metals out of discarded batteries can be cheaper than digging ores from the Earth," the company says.

Some retired EV batteries will simply be repurposed for other uses, such as remote charging stations or home energy storage. VW's portable quick-charging station will hold 360-kWh or energy, capable of simultaneously charging up to four vehicles at a time at up to 100 kW.

Volkswagen Group's Salzgitter component factory will serve as the home of the company's battery recycling operations. By next year, the plant will be able to recycle 1,200 tons of EV batteries, equivalent to approximately 3,000 vehicles annually.

"In the long term, Volkswagen wants to recycle about 97 percent of all raw materials in the battery packs," the German automaker says. "Today, it's roughly 53 percent, and the plant in Salzgitter expects to raise it further to about 72 percent."