Iveco selects BASF as a recycling partner for its electric vehicle batteries

Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company, Iveco Group announced it has selected the world's leading chemical company, BASF as its partner to provide recycling solutions for lithium-ion batteries used in Iveco's electric vans, buses, and trucks.

The latest move is a part of the Iveco Group's circular economy strategy which follows the 4R Framework: Repair, Refurbish, Repurpose, and Recycle. It also ensures compliance with the Extended Producer Responsibility policy which holds the producers responsible for the entire life cycle of the product they introduce in the market.

"Life cycle thinking is one of our strategic sustainability priorities", said Angela Qu, Chief Supply Chain Officer at the Iveco Group.

"BASF shares this approach with us, and its broad battery collection network and recycling capabilities in Europe will help us close the loop from end-of-life batteries to new ones. Working together we will enable a circular economy and reduce our CO2 footprint, which is fully in line with the Group's commitment to reach net zero carbon by 2040."

The agreement includes the collection, packaging, transport, and recycling of batteries, in various European countries including France, Germany, and UK among others. Post collection, BASF will mechanically process the batteries to black mass, from which critical raw materials – such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium will be extracted and recovered for use in the manufacturing of new batteries. Thereby, BASF will establish the full battery recycling value chain in Europe to locally provide recycled metals with a low carbon footprint for the battery industry.

"The partnership with Iveco Group is our first agreement to recycle batteries from electric vans, buses and trucks and an important step for our battery recycling business to expand our activities into the commercial vehicle space", said Dr. Daniel Schönfelder, President of BASF's Catalysts division, who is also responsible for the company's battery materials and battery recycling business.

"It will allow us to further strengthen our European collection network and make further progress in this developing market. With our recycling solutions, we aim to support the European market to close the loop and meet the ambitious circular economy-focused policy requirements of the EU Battery Regulation."

BASF recently inaugurated Europe's first co-located center of battery material production and battery recycling in Schwarzheide, Germany.