Toyota and Cirba Solutions have announced a battery recycling collaboration to move towards carbon-neutral goals.
Toyota Motor North America has announced a new battery recycling collaboration with Cirba Solutions to further its mission to create a closed-loop battery ecosystem.
The agreement will boost the relationship between Toyota and Cirba Solutions by enhancing Toyota’s battery recycling network and optimising its logistics for end-of-lie electrified vehicle battery collection.
“Cirba Solutions’ large and well-established transportation and recycling network ensures Toyota has nationwide battery collection and recycling to reduce both our costs as well as our operational carbon footprint,” said Christopher Yang, Group Vice President of Business Development at Toyota Motor North America.
“This moves us closer to our ultimate goal of creating a sustainable, closed-loop ecosystem for our automotive batteries.”
About the battery recycling collaboration
Cirba Solutions, one of the largest battery recycling companies in North America, offers an extensive battery recycling network.
The battery recycling collaboration will focus on the collection, transportation, dismantling, and processing of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from the Midwest and East Coast regions.
Processing will occur at Cirba Solutions’ facility in Lancaster, Ohio, which received an $82m grant as part of the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law. Here, advanced technology to extract minerals will be used, and the metals will then be integrated back into the supply chain. The technology has an up to 95% recovery rate.
“Our collaboration with Toyota helps move toward a long-term vision of a sustainable closed-loop battery supply chain. With aligned purpose, and Toyota’s growing electric vehicle line-up in North America, we are proud to be a partner,” said Jay Wago, Chief Commercial Officer at Cirba Solutions.
Toyota’s current battery recycling commitments
Currently, Toyota collects around 25,000 used automotive batteries found in hybrid electric vehicles from its dealership network each year. The company expects that the number of end-of-life batteries will rise as the number of EVs sold increases in the future.
Through the battery recycling collaboration, Toyota predicts that it will reduce its overall transportation and logistics costs by around 70% by reducing the average miles driven for collection and recycling.
In some cases, like the Cincinnati region, the new battery recycling collaboration will reduce the total mileage driven for these activities by approximately 94%.
Toyota believes that the reduction in miles will make a significant difference in transportation-related emissions as well.
The number one seller of EVs
Toyota has been the number-one seller of EVs globally for more than 25 years. In North America, the company has sold more than 6.2 million combined PHEVs and HEVs since 2000.
Toyota is now focused on its ability to recycle, remanufacture, and repurpose batteries used in their EVs that have reached the end of their life.
The company is also developing the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina plant, which is anticipated to go online in 2025. The plant for automotive batteries has received a total investment of nearly $14bn.
Announced in 2021, the North Carolina facility will support the creation of more than 5,000 new jobs to support vehicles assembled in North America.
