India's Attero will invest $1 billion to build a battery recycling plant, which plans to meet 15% of global battery material demand

According to foreign media reports, Attero Recycling Pvt, India’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling company, plans to invest $1 billion in the next five years to build lithium-ion battery recycling plants in Europe, the United States and Indonesia.Demand for lithium resources has surgedas the world transitions toelectric vehicles .

Nitin Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Attero, said in an interview: “Lithium-ion batteries are becoming ubiquitous, and there is currently a huge amount of lithium-ion battery waste that we can recycle. By 2030, there will be 2.5 million tons of lithium Ion batteries are at the end of their lifespan, and there is currently only 700,000 tons of battery waste recycling capacity.”

Recycling used batteries is critical to the supply of lithium materials, and a shortage of lithium is threatening the global transition to clean energy through electric vehicles.The price of batteries, which make up about 50% of the cost of electric vehicles, is rising sharply as lithium supply cannot keep up with demand.Higher battery costs could make EVs unaffordable for consumers in mainstream markets or in value-conscious markets like India.At present, Indiahas lagged behind major countries such as China inelectrification transformation.

With a $1 billion investment, Attero hopes to recycle more than 300,000 tons of lithium-ion battery waste annually by 2027, Gupta said.One of the company's plants in Poland will start operations in the fourth quarter of 2022, while the US plant in Ohio is expected to start operations in the third quarter of 2023, and a plant in Indonesia will also be operational in the first quarter of 2024.

Image credit: Attero

Attero's customers in India include Hyundai Motor, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki.Gupta revealed that Attero recycles all types of old lithium-ion batteries, mainly extracting key metals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite and manganese, which are then exported to gigafactories outside India.The expansion will help Attero meet more than 15% of global cobalt, lithium, graphite and nickel demand.

Mining these metals, rather than from second-hand batteries, is environmentally and socially damaging.Gupta noted that 500,000 gallons of water are required to extract one ton of lithium.