STLA - Stellantis and Orano ink joint venture to recycle electric vehicle batteries

2023-10-24 10:25:27 ET

Stellantis ( NYSE: STLA ) and nuclear energy firm Orano are establishing a joint venture to recycle end-of-life electric vehicle batteries and scrap from gigafactories in Europe and North America.

U.S.-listed shares of STLA were down 0.8% to $18.79 in morning trade.

Orano is a France-based company that undertakes various nuclear activities, including the exploration and mining of uranium, the reprocessing and recycling of used nuclear fuel, and the decommissioning of radioactive waste. According to its website, Orano brought in revenue of €4.2B in the year ended 2021.

"The joint venture capitalizes on Orano’s ... low-carbon technology, which breaks with existing processes, allowing the recovery of all materials from lithium-ion batteries, and the manufacturing of new cathode materials," STLA and Orano said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

"The joint venture will produce materials also known as 'black mass' or 'active mass.' This can be refined in Orano’s hydrometallurgical plant to be built in Dunkirk, France so that the materials could be re-used in batteries, thus closing the loop of a circular economy," STLA and Orano added.

According to the parties, cobalt, nickel, and lithium reclaimed from the joint venture will support Stellantis’ ( STLA ) circular economy approach and will help meet a European Union battery directive to use recycled materials in new batteries.

The new JV with Orano comes at a time when Stellantis ( STLA ), along with fellow "Detroit Three" carmakers General Motors ( GM ) and Ford ( F ), are facing an ongoing United Auto Workers strike. On Monday, the union said that 6.8K STLA workers at the company's largest U.S. plant walked off the job.

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• Stellantis: The UAW Strike Will Prove Its Resilience
• Stellantis makes big commitment to boost commercial vehicles business
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