Jaguar Land Rover sees one of the automotive battery recycling programs it is backing win £8.1 million ($10.8 million) in funding from the U.K. government.
Start-up recycling company Mint Innovation announces it has received the investment from the government’s DRIVE35 program committing £2.5 billion ($3.35 billion) to the recovery of lithium, nickel and cobalt from used auto batteries.
The company is just one of multiple programs being supported by JLR’s recycling push that began in 2022 when its venture capital and mobility arm, InMotion Ventures, invested in a lithium-ion battery recycling and materials company, Ascend Elements (previously called Battery Resourcers).
InMotion now has a portfolio of 20 companies focused on recycling and sustainability as part of JLR’s stated aim to achieve net zero-carbon emissions across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039.
The Mint Innovation project, to run trials of battery ingredient recycling in the U.K.’s West Midlands for the next three years, is supported by a consortium including JLR, LiBatt Recycling and the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick.
“Our advanced processes aim to not only deliver high-quality materials...but also help to reduce our reliance on virgin materials,” Beth Johnston, assistant professor at the University of Warwick, tells the Reuters news agency.
