Hyundai Glovis, Huayou join hands for EV battery recycling

Hyundai Glovis Co., the logistics unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, has teamed up with a unit of China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., the global refined cobalt leader, for the fast-growing electric vehicle battery recycling business.

Hyundai Glovis on Monday agreed with Huayou Recycling Technology Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, to cooperate on the establishment of retired EV battery circulation systems, the energy storage system (ESS) business and raw materials supply management.

“EV batteries can be used for ESS when their remaining capacities fall to 80-90%, while raw materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium can be extracted through decomposition and melting them,” said a battery industry source in Seoul.

The global retired battery recycling industry was forecast to grow to $208.9 billion by 2040 from an estimated $42.4 billion in 2030, Hyundai Glovis quoted South Korean EV and battery industry tracker SNE Research as saying.

FUTURE GROWTH

Huayou Recycling known for its technology to check batteries’ remaining capacity in 15 seconds collects 65,000 tons of retired batteries enough for over 130,000 EVs a year in China, the world’s largest clean vehicle market.

“There is no choice but to seek out Chinese companies, given few waste battery suppliers in Korea,” said a shipping industry source in Seoul. “Various technologies are required to safely transport large-capacity batteries by sea for long periods.”

Hyundai Glovis,  the major shareholders of which include Hyundai Motor Co., the maker of the IONIQ EV series, has been working on the battery recycling business for future growth.

The logistics company developed a dedicated container to carry multiple retired batteries, for which it obtained a patent in 2021. It made an equity investment in ER, a South Korean company with the technology of pre-treatment processes of waste batteries, earlier this year.

Hyundai Glovis is also developing battery diagnosis systems with Hyundai Motor Group’s Namyang R&D Center, the conglomerate research hub, for mass production in 2025.

The company also joined hands with EcoPro Co., South Korea’s leading EV battery materials producer, for the battery recycling business in June.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.