UK funds EV battery recycling plant
Altilium Clean Technology secured a £18.5 million government grant to scale electric‑vehicle battery recycling capacity in the UK, aiming to recover materials domestically and create about 70 jobs in Plymouth. The award positions recycling as an industrial strategy to reduce raw‑material import dependence for EV supply chains (businesscloud.co.uk).
The UK has awarded Altilium £18.5 million to build a commercial electric-vehicle battery recycling plant in Plymouth. (altilium.tech) The money comes through the government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, a program run by the Department for Business and Trade with the Advanced Propulsion Centre United Kingdom and Innovate United Kingdom. The award was announced on April 9, 2026. (apcuk.co.uk) Altilium said the ACT3 plant will process 24,000 end-of-life electric-vehicle batteries a year and recover nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, lithium sulphate and graphite for new battery production. Construction is due to start in summer 2026, with commissioning planned for the end of 2027. (altilium.tech) Battery recycling means taking used packs apart and pulling out metals and minerals that can go back into fresh cells instead of being mined again. The Advanced Propulsion Centre says the Scale-Up Fund is meant to finance that hard middle stage between pilot projects and full manufacturing. (apcuk.co.uk) That matters in Britain because the country still imports much of the material used in electric-vehicle batteries, even as it tries to build a domestic supply chain for zero-emission cars. Altilium said ACT3 is meant to keep more of those materials inside the United Kingdom. (altilium.tech) The grant is also part of a wider industrial policy push. The Advanced Propulsion Centre said the first two DRIVE35 Scale-Up awards shared £22 million in matched government support and are meant to unlock more than £44 million of total investment. (apcuk.co.uk) In Plymouth, Altilium said the expansion will create 70 new jobs at a site where it already runs what it describes as the United Kingdom’s only hydrometallurgical pilot plant for electric-vehicle battery recycling. Hydrometallurgy is a chemical refining process that separates battery materials using liquids rather than high-heat smelting. (altilium.tech) Altilium said ACT3 is a step toward a larger ACT4 plant in Teesside that would process 150,000 batteries a year and produce 30,000 tonnes of cathode active materials annually. The company says it has already raised more than £17 million in private investment from backers including Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile, Marubeni Corporation and Mizuho Bank. (altilium.tech) For now, the government money moves Altilium from pilot-scale recycling toward a working factory. If the Plymouth timetable holds, the test for Britain’s battery strategy comes at the end of 2027. (altilium.tech)
