China battery giant launches major new push for “circularity” amid EV and home storage boom

China battery giant CATL has launched two major initiatives aimed at improving the sustainability of battery manufacturing, recycling and reuse – backed by a some of Europe’s biggest EV makers and home battery companies.

CATL and the non-profit Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced the two initiatives at the Climate Innovation Forum, alongside industry leaders and stakeholders including BMW, Renault, Volvo, Octopus Energy, Google, and Xiaomi.

The initiatives include new battery design guidelines that embed circularity across the full battery lifecycle, and a separate business coalition aimed at accelerating the policy, investment, and commercial conditions needed to make circular business models the industry norm.

Establishing circular battery design guidelines creates a common methodology for circular battery design across a range of mobility applications and relies in part on CATL’s practical experience in battery manufacturing, recycling, and service operations.

Specifically, the new methodology aims to inform procurement standards, investor frameworks, and future regulatory discussions, including the evolution of European battery policy.

CATL hopes that the new methodology will address the fragmentation inherent across multiple approaches to battery repair, second life, and recycling, providing a shared basis for comparing circular performance across the market, while also helping buyers to better evaluate products, investors to assess long-term value, and policymakers to reference a consistent framework.

A working group is already in place to develop the common methodology, with a goal to publish their work next year. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is providing a neutral platform through which companies across the whole battery value chain can develop shared principles that no single organisation could establish alone.

“Last year we set the direction: decouple battery growth from virgin material extraction,” said Jiang Li, vice president and board secretary for CATL.

“Today, the industry is beginning to build the common rules that will help deliver it. That is not only a climate opportunity, but an industrial one.”

The second initiative is the creation a cross-sector coalition to advocate for the economic and policy conditions that make circular business models the default. 

Designed as a policy and industry platform, the coalition will aim to accelerate the adoption of circular business models across both mobility and energy, such as battery-as-a-service and battery-swapping businesses that CATL has pioneered.

The two new initiatives build on the existing partnership between CATL and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which together created the Global Energy Circularity Commitment (GECC) aimed at accelerating the shift toward a circular battery economy.

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