Circular Economy Supply Chain

BMW Group Expands Circular Supply Chain for EV Batteries

After establishing a system for harvesting cobalt, lithium and nickel from its high-voltage batteries in China, a new partnership extends the effort to its EU supply chain — with the US, Mexico and Canada to follow.

Published 5 months ago | About a 3 minute read

Image: BMW Group

With automakers all over the world — from Ford, Honda, Polestar and Rivian here in the US; BYD in China; and Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Lamborghini and Porsche in Europe — accelerating development of electric mobility solutions, optimizing the performance and lifecycle of electric vehicle (EV) batteries is an increasingly higher priority.

For its part, BMW Group has been working for years to develop a closed-loop system for EV batteries. In 2022, its BMW-Brilliance Automotive joint venture successfully launched a closed-loop recycling system for the reuse of cobalt, lithium and nickel from its high-voltage batteries in China; now, the company has formed a similar partnership to recover the minerals across its European supply chain: In late 2024, BMW teamed up with technology lifecycle solution provider SK tes to recover the three critical metals from used EV batteries before returning them to the value chain to make new batteries. This closed-loop system is set to expand to the US-Mexico-Canada region as early as 2026.

Its long-term partnership with SK tes sees the BMW Group directly involved in the practical recycling processes, allowing it to feed back valuable insights to its development departments. Moving forward, end-of-life high-voltage batteries from BMW Group development, production and markets in Europe will be sent to SK tes in the first step towards an effective and sustainable circular economy for EV batteries.

In SK tes’ battery-recycling process, which has won numerous sustainability and innovation awards worldwide – from the Business Intelligence Group’s Sustainability Service of the Year to the UN Global Compact’s Apex Award — batteries are mechanically shredded, during which the metals are concentrated into a material called black mass. The valuable nickel, lithium and cobalt are then recovered via hydrometallurgy — an increasingly popular process for harvesting these crucial metals from batteries for reuse. BMW says these secondary raw materials will be used for its new GEN 6 drive train, among other things.

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"The promotion of circular economy is an important strategic topic for the BMW Group. The development of recyclable products, the increase of secondary materials in our components, and the closing of loops play an equally important role," says Nadine Philipp, VP of Sustainability Supplier Network at BMW AG. "And by the means of circular economy, we are also increasing our resilience in the supply chains."

Resilient supply chains will be key for the auto industry as both electric mobility manufacturing and the climate continue to heat up, and increasing circularity offers myriad opportunities for safeguarding supply; closing the loop on critical raw materials to secure supply and increasing reuse of as many components as possible not only greatly reduces the social and environmental impacts of mining new minerals — economically, it’s just smart practice.

Through more thoughtful approaches to design and production, the BMW Group is working to ensure everything in its vehicles becomes a raw materials source for new cars once they reach the end of their useful life. Another of its forays into circularity can be seen in a circular car seat, made from plant-based materials and designed for easy disassembly and recyclability.