Cirba plugs into Toyota’s closed-loop goals

Toyota has recruited battery recycling specialist Cirba Solutions as part of its mission to create a closed-loop regime and to support its carbon neutrality goals.

The agreement expands Toyota’s battery recycling and logistics networks for end-of-life electrified vehicle (EV) battery collection. Cirba Solutions is one of the largest battery recycling companies in North America and offers a coast-to-coast collection and recycling network.

The collaboration with Toyota will focus on the collection, transportation, dismantling and processing of end-of-life lithium-ion EV batteries from the Midwest and East Coast regions.

‘Our collaboration with Toyota helps move toward a long-term vision of a sustainable closed-loop battery supply chain,’ says Jay Wago, chief commercial officer at Cirba Solutions.

Processing will take place at Cirba Solutions’ Lancaster, Ohio facility and is expected to extract critical minerals from scrap and end-of-life batteries with an up to 95% recovery rate, then supplying battery grade metals back into the supply chain.

Toyota currently collects approximately 25 000 used batteries from its dealership network each year and expects the number of batteries, particularly end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, to rise as the number of battery electric vehicles it sells increases in the future.

The carmaker expects to cut its overall transportation and logistics costs by at least 70% from reducing the average miles driven for collection and recycling from 1 251 to 582, based on 2022 data, and by focusing on the Midwest and East Coast regions.

‘Cirba Solutions’ large and well-established transportation and recycling network ensures Toyota has nationwide battery collection and recycling to reduce both our costs as well as our operational carbon footprint,’ says Christopher Yang, group vice president, business development, Toyota Motor North America.

Toyota is currently building a new plant for automotive batteries in North Carolina that is anticipated to go online in 2025 at a cost of nearly US$ 14 billion (EUR 13 billion).