Global leading metal recycler EMR Metals Recycling is joining forces with automakers in the UK to create the country’s first commercial scale recycling facility for auto battery packs.

Through a consortium with Bentley, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, as well as other industry players, the UK-based company is leading the RECOVAS project. The partnership seeks to create an end-of-life supply chain for electric car batteries.

EMR says “the project aims to provide a standardised and reliable route for recycling and repurposing lithium-ion car batteries at a scale that can cope with the expected sales of electric vehicles in the UK.”

With a £49 million ($64.8m) grant from the government, RECOVAS will looking into remanufacturing, reusing and recycling options. The partnership will start in January and should commence commercial operations by around 2024, Kallanish learns.

There are currently 373,600 electric car batteries on UK roads (including plug-in hybrids), with fleet electrification set to pick up pace following the government’s plans to ban new sales of petrol and diesel engines in 2030.

Under European and UK law, manufacturers retain responsibility for the safe disposal of EV batteries.

The carmakers participating in the project will share more information about the design and construction of their batteries. They will develop “simple design changes that greatly improve the potential to remanufacture, reuse or recycle their batteries at end of life,” notes EMR’s managing director for Technology and Innovation, Roger Morton.

“This will help to transform the economics of the electric vehicle market,” he says, adding “RECOVAS is an essential part of the sustainable roll out of electric vehicles,” in the country.