Porsche-Backed German Startup Builds New Battery Recycling Facility

After a $60 million investment from investors that included Porsche Ventures, Cylib breaks ground on a massive battery recycling plant.

EVs might be great, but unfortunately their batteries don’t last forever. Even with the recent slow down in the march towards EVs, more and more automakers, are building more and more of them. So, the need to handle end-of-life battery recycling is only increasing. Cylib is a German company that was founded in 2022 that developed a sustainable process for recycling all components of a lithium battery. In May of this year Cylib announced a €55 million ($60.5 million) round of equity financing. Porsche Ventures was one of the investors. Cylib used that money to acquire the land to build a new 236,000 square foot battery recycling plant in Dormagen, Germany. That land is located at Currenta’s Chempark Dormagen chemical site.

Cylib broke ground on the new battery recycling plant this week. The plant is expected to open in 2026. It will be large enough to handle recycling of 30,000 tons of end-of-life batteries each year. Roughly 170 new jobs will be created in the region as a result of the new plant. “Our goal is to become Europe’s leading sustainable chemical park.

The new industrial move in battery recycling and our shared commitment to the Dormagen ecosystem perfectly align with our strategy,” said Tim Hartmann, CEO of Currenta. The new plant will be the largest end-to-end lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Europe.

EU Battery Recycling

The EU is looking to end its dependence on the Chinese supply of critical minerals needed for battery production through the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). “The regulation defined a list of 34 critical raw materials, of which 17 are considered strategically critical for the EU economy due to high supply risks and geostrategic import dependencies.

Cylib plays a significant role in being able to ‘urban-mine’ and supply seven of these strategically critical raw materials – lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum, and copper – domestically in the EU.” The EU also has mandates around integrating recycled materials into the production of new batteries. The new battery recycling plant will go a long way towards achieving these goals.

Porsche Ventures

The Porsche Ventures team are not the folks that build your 911 in Stuttgart. Instead, they are the venture capital arm of Porsche AG. Porsche Ventures invests in startups that will be innovators and pioneers in the mobility, industrial technology and sustainability space. Created in 2017, Porsche Ventures has offices in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. They currently are investors in about 40 different companies in addition to Cylib.

Photos: Cylib; Porsche

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Joe Kucinski

Joe has been obsessed with cars since he got his very first Matchbox toy in the ‘70s. In 2003, he found a new obsession in track days that led to obtaining his SCCA competition license in 2015. In 2019, he became a certified driving instructor for the National Auto Sport Association. His love for all things four wheels has never wavered, whether it's driving some of the best cars in the world on the racetrack, tackling 2,000-mile road trips in 2-seat sports cars or being winched off the side of a mountaintop in a Jeep. Writing for the suite of Internet Brands Auto Communities sites, including Rennlist.com, Ford Truck Enthusiasts, 6 Speed and more allows him to share that knowledge and passion with others.