Running for three years, RECOVAS is a ground-breaking project which is part funded by the Government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre. The partnership brings together manufacturers, recyclers, and academia to improve the potential to remanufacture, reuse or recycle EV batteries.
“Recycling of electric vehicle batteries is a principal part of the electric supply chain, so it’s vital that we get it right. The investment in innovative projects like RECOVAS, awarded as part of our APC 16 programme, demonstrates the importance of creativity and engineering excellence in the UK’s bid for a sustainable and commercial net-zero future.”
Advanced Propulsion Centre
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) accelerates the industrialisation of technologies which will help to realise net-zero emission vehicles. It is at the heart of the UK government’s commitment to end the country’s contribution to global warming by 2050.
Since its foundation in 2013, APC has funded over 113 low-carbon projects, involving more than 290 partners. The technologies developed in these projects are projected to save over 225 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing the lifetime emissions from 8.8 million cars.
Autocraft Solutions Group
Autocraft Solutions Group is one of Europe’s leading OEM partners for the manufacture and remanufacture of outsourced IC engines and EV batteries, and future sustainable propulsion solutions to a global market.
Through their REVIVE™ TRIAGE, MOBILE and WORKSHOP solutions they can diagnose EV battery faults, perform full state-of-health testing to cell level, and repair EV battery packs not meeting automotive standards back to expected performance. Modules are fully assessed and graded for 2nd life usage, or for recycling if not longer viable.
Bentley
Bentley Motors is the most sought-after luxury car brand in the world. The company’s headquarters in Crewe is home to all of its operations including design, R&D, engineering and production of the company’s five model lines, Continental GT, Continental GT Convertible, Flying Spur, Bentayga and Bentayga EWB. The combination of fine craftsmanship, using skills that have been handed down through generations, alongside engineering expertise and cutting-edge technology is unique to UK luxury car brands such as Bentley. It is also an example of high-value British manufacturing at its best. Bentley employs around 4,000 people at Crewe.
BMW
The UK has an important role to play within the BMW Group. It is the only place in the world where all three of BMW Group’s brands – BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars – are represented by manufacturing operations. BMW Group employs around 8,000 people directly in the UK with an additional 14,000 in its 147-strong Retailer network representing BMW and MINI brands. The company has invested nearly £2 billion in its UK operations since 2000, and the UK is BMW Group’s fourth largest sales market in the world.
Connected Energy
Connected Energy is a world leading innovator of energy storage systems that utilise second life electric vehicle batteries. Its technologies enable intensive energy users to benefit from more cost effective, flexible and sustainable energy storage. The company’s E-STOR system has a modular and scalable design that can be adapted to control any electric vehicle battery pack. Connected Energy’s portfolio of projects in operation and development range from 90kWh to 14.4MWh.
A pioneer of the circular economy, Connected Energy aims to dramatically increase the value created from the resources already embedded in electric vehicle batteries by giving them a second life of 5-10 years before they are recycled.
Connected Energy has deployed systems in the UK and Europe and is backed by investment from ENGIE New Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation, Macquarie Bank and Turquoise Capital.
EMR
EMR is a global leader in sustainable materials, with physical operations in the UK, USA, Germany and the Netherlands. Our core business is the recycling of metal and plastics from a range of public, commercial and industrial waste streams.
Sources include end-of-life vehicles, consumer products, industry, construction and demolition. Our recycling activities generate around 10 million tonnes of sustainable metals and plastics a year, saving over 10 million tonnes of CO2 compared to using virgin alternatives.
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. HSE is dedicated to protecting people and places and is enabling industry to innovate safely to prevent major incidents, supporting the move towards net zero. To support this, HSE offers research and consultancy services, independent from its regulatory and policy functions, underpinned by a unique combination of regulatory insight, world class science and engineering capabilities and real-world experience, learned from over a century of accident investigation, process safety development and major accident hazard and risk management.
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover’s Reimagine strategy is delivering a sustainability-rich vision of modern luxury by design.
They are transforming their business to become carbon net zero across their supply chain, products, and operations by 2039 and have set a roadmap to reduce emissions across their own operations and value chains by 2030 through approved, science-based targets.
Electrification is central to this strategy and before the end of the decade the Range Rover, Discovery, Defender collections will each have a pure electric model, while Jaguar will be entirely electric.
At heart Jaguar Land Rover is a British company, with two design and engineering sites, three vehicle manufacturing facilities, an engine manufacturing centre, and a battery assembly centre in the UK. They also have vehicle plants in China, Brazil, India, Austria, and Slovakia, as well as seven technology hubs across the globe.
Jaguar Land Rover is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited, part of Tata Sons.
UKBIC
The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) was opened in July 2021. The national battery manufacturing development facility provides the missing link between battery technology, which has proved promising at laboratory or prototype scale, and successful mass production. Based in Coventry, UKBIC welcomes manufacturers, entrepreneurs, researchers and educators, and can be accessed by any organisation with existing or new battery technology – if that technology brings green jobs and prosperity to the UK.
In addition to funding from the Faraday Battery Challenge through UK Research and Innovation, the delivery of UKBIC was part-funded through the West Midlands Combined Authority, and a consortium of Coventry City Council, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and WMG, at the University of Warwick. UKBIC was created following a competition in 2018 led by the Advanced Propulsion Centre with support from Innovate UK.
WMG, University of Warwick
WMG is a world leading research and education group, transforming organisations and driving innovation through a unique combination of collaborative research and development, and pioneering education programmes.
As an international role model for successful partnerships between academia and the private and public sectors, WMG develops advancements nationally and globally, in applied science, technology and engineering, to deliver real impact to economic growth, society and the environment.
WMG’s education programmes focus on lifelong learning of the brightest talent, from the WMG Academies for Young Engineers, degree apprenticeships, undergraduate and postgraduate, through to professional programmes.
An academic department of the University of Warwick, and a centre for the HVM Catapult, WMG was founded by the late Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 to help reinvigorate UK manufacturing and improve competitiveness through innovation and skills development.
