The German company best known for building ultra high-performance sports and racing cars has an equally long history in engineering and innovation, and has fully embraced EVs in recent years – launching all-electric versions of its Macan compact crossover and, of course, the excellent Porsche Taycan.
With this new initiative, Porsche engineers hope to address the growing importance of recycled battery raw materials and promote the responsible handling of high-voltage batteries at the end of life.
In the long term, a recycling network for EV batteries is planned to be established in collaboration with external partners.
“With the help of innovative recycling processes, we strive to increase our independence from volatile and geopolitically unstable raw material markets,” says Barbara Frenkel, Executive Board Member for Procurement at Porsche. “Circular Economy is a core pillar of our sustainability strategy, and with this pilot project, we want to underscore our ambitions.”
Three phase plan
Porsche is advancing its commitment to sustainability by embracing the principles of, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” The company is developing more efficient electric vehicles with longer-lasting batteries, which are repurposed in “Second Life” Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) like the one implemented at its Leipzig plant (above). Now, through a new closed-loop recycling pilot, Porsche is emphasizing that “recycle” part by approaching the project in three phases.
In the first project phase, EV batteries from development vehicles are mechanically shredded at the end of their use-phase and processed into “black mass” that contains valuable raw materials like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium. So far, the program has produced about 65 tons of processed black mass.
In the next phase, the black mass is further separated and refined until the materials reach both the levels of quality and purity Porsche demands from the “virgin” materials it buys for its new batteries.
In the third phase, Porsche takes the raw materials recovered from its decommissioned high-voltage batteries and makes new batteries with them, demonstrating Porsche’s, “holistic understanding of the circular economy.”
Porsche hopes its new pilot will help prepare the company for upcoming regulatory changes – for example, the expected requirements for batteries in the European Union by 2031. By adopting recycled materials early, the company says it intends to make an active contribution to the technology while further reducing its environmental impact.
