Pioneering Israeli company is recycling electric vehicles’ lithium batteries

In the end, all that’s left is black powder, which looks nondescript but threatens to dethrone oil as “black gold.” On the London commodities exchange, it fetches thousands of dollars per ton, depending on purity.

The powder is composed of a cocktail of coveted metals — nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium. Manufacturers can use it to produce vital products, especially batteries for electric vehicles.

Since this powder originates from used batteries, it’s a closed loop: from battery to battery again. And now an Israeli company is getting into the game.

During a recent visit to his southern Israel site, Tomer Aharon, COO of “Batte-Re,” the country’s first electric vehicle battery recycling plant, cautiously holds a bag of the black powder.

The plant’s production line, shiny and clean as a pharmaceutical lab, is designed to capture every speck of dust. Five vacuum cleaners pull in stray particles, storing them in containers.

“This is both because it’s valuable and because we don’t want to breathe it,” Aharon explains.

Founded two years ago by four entrepreneurs, Batte-Re was born out of the belief that the recycling of cars and batteries will soon be booming.

The automotive industry is a major polluter — and not just from emissions while driving.

“Every year, around 350,000 new vehicles hit the roads in Israel, and about 200,000 are taken off,” says Batte-Re CEO Ofir Avidan. “Maybe 10 percent of scrapped cars are processed properly. The car bodies often stay put, and engines end up dumped in streambeds.”

The data is alarming. Batte-Re was founded on the understanding that this process must work differently in a world of electric vehicles, where everything is electronics and backed by batteries.

There are 100,000 electric vehicles on Israeli roads, a number expected to rise to a million by decade’s end. In 2023, 20% of new cars purchased were electric.

The company plans to open a vehicle recycling facility, but has chosen to start with batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries power nearly every modern device, from smartphones to drills, scooters, electric bikes, cars, and buses. Electric cars are a green innovation, but they come with a problem: their batteries contain toxic metals and can ignite dangerously.

“This battery is a significant undertaking,” Avidan says.

Batteries must undergo a professional, controlled dismantling and reuse process at the end of their lives to neutralize these dangers and turn them from a burden into an asset. Given the immense economic value of their component metals, this results in a double profit.

“The company founders wanted to advance Israel’s circular economy and make money, of course,” says Avidan. “As demand for batteries grows, so does the need for raw materials. Mining resources is costly and environmentally damaging. Therefore, creating a loop and reusing the materials after they’ve served in a previous battery makes sense.”

Batteries of all shapes and sizes

The plant is located at Rotem Industrial Park near Dimona, in southern Israel, bordered by desert on one side and the Negev Nuclear Research Center on the other.

Still in its initial stages, it was officially inaugurated this summer in a ceremony with Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman and a local children’s choir from Dimona.

Batteries of all sizes arrive at the plant: small ones from scooters and e-bikes, weighing around 6 kilograms (13 pounds); electric car batteries weighing almost half a ton (0.55 US tons); and electric bus batteries weighing two tons (2.2 US tons).

A scooter battery lasts about 500 charge cycles, or roughly two years. Car batteries are supposed to last longer.

“When we built our business model, we thought we’d see car batteries in five to six years,” Avidan notes. “Only in 2020 to 2021 did electric cars begin to enter Israel in significant numbers, and we expected to start seeing batteries in 2026. We’re surprised because we already have hundreds of batteries on our shelves.”

One reason, industry sources say, is that some cars come with defective batteries, which manufacturers must replace.

When a battery arrives at the plant, the first step is discharging its electric load under the open sky by immersing it in table salt. Once neutralized and safe, it goes onto the production — or dismantling — line, a series of machines, conveyor belts, and sieves. The process is mechanical and physical, with no chemical substances involved. The only emissions from the stack are water vapor and carbon dioxide.

The breakdown yields about 60% black powder, 17% copper, 8% aluminum, and clean plastic. Everything is sold, except for the plastic, which has little demand.

“The knowledge needed to handle a car battery is very different from what we’ve known so far,” says Aharon. “Lithium batteries power everything around us. These processes exist and are known, but dealing with a vehicle battery is something Israel is still somewhat unfamiliar with.”

“Overall, it’s similar to smaller batteries, but the weight and internal structure make it unique. The modules are more complex, and each company has its own design,” he explains.

“What’s happening here is just a preview,” Avidan continues, saying he expects the market to be highly competitive in the coming years. “We know competition will come, and we’re ready for it. We know of at least two other strong groups preparing to enter the field. According to our business plan, we aim to initially hold a 30% market share, eventually dropping to 10%, which will still be profitable.”

A dangerous Wild West

The assumption of a competitive market is based on the hope that Israel will establish regulatory mechanisms and a law mandating the recycling of electric batteries and vehicles at the end of their lifecycle, as in most Western countries.

“Electric cars are excluded from the electronic waste law,” Avidan says. “What law regulates them in Israel? None. Right now, no law in Israel requires anyone to do anything. When I speak with policymakers, they say there will be a law, but it’s not a priority right now. There’s a war.”

Until then, it’s the Wild West here — and a dangerous one. For example, in Holon, the Batte-Re team found a lab owner sitting on a massive stockpile of expired lithium batteries, unsure of what to do with them.

“He had accumulated three pallets of lithium, each weighing a ton, in a basement beneath a shopping center,” Avidan says.

“To his credit, he didn’t dump it in a streambed. People return used or broken batteries to him, and he has hundreds without use. It’s dangerous to both people and the environment.”

When asked how one stays optimistic in such a dire situation, Avidan concludes, “European regulations are very advanced. They have clear policies. A car manufacturer must ensure the car, including the battery, is recycled at the end of its life. This needs to happen in Israel, too. And it will.”