Kia to form private-public partnership for EV battery recycling

South Korea's Kia Corp. revealed a plan for the first domestic private-public partnership and initiating a pilot project to create a recycling ecosystem for used batteries. This automaker aims to create reliable criteria for evaluating EV battery residual value diagnosis system

Kia signed on Friday an alliance agreement for envigorating a battery ecosystem with Hyundai Glovis, Eva Cycle, Ecopro, the North Gyeongsang Provincial Government and Gyeongbuk Technopark. This marks the first time that domestic automobile manufacturers, battery recycling companies, materials suppliers and local governments have all come together to build a battery recycling ecosystem.

Each company will carry out the entire process of recycling used batteries by putting discarded batteries into the pilot project. Eva Cycle will dismantle the discarded batteries provided by Kia to produce black powder and Ecopro will extract raw materials from it to make cathode materials.

Hyundai Glovis will evaluate the economic feasibility of the overall recycling business, while local governments will handle related regulatory matters. Through all the stages from raw material extraction to battery production and electric vehicle integration, step-by-step data will be collected to realistically analyze the residual value of batteries.

Kia plans to commercialize battery services platforms such as battery subscriptions and battery refurbishment based on the results of the pilot project.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com