Europe’s transition towards a competitive and circularbattery economy is entering a critical phase. The EU BatteriesRegulation, together with wider European initiatives on circularity, industrial resilience and strategic autonomy, provides an increasingly comprehensive framework for sustainable battery value chains. At the same time, European research and innovation programmes have supported the development ofnew approaches to EV battery diagnostics, safety, reverse logistics, traceability, repurposing, automated disassembly and recycling.
However, as these technologies progress from research and demonstration towards deployment, a different set of questions emerges: Are the technical, regulatory and market conditions in place to enable battery reverse logistics to operate efficiently and economically at scale? And what can be learned from projects that have already attempted to implement these solutionsin practice?
A new joint position paper from the Circular Battery Cluster addresses these questions by bringing together the experience of four Horizon Europe sister projects: BatteReverse, REBELION, REINFORCE and RECIRCULATE.
From individual projects to collective evidence
The four projects were funded under the same Horizon Europe topic, HORIZON-CL5-2022-D2-01-10, focused on streamlined battery collection and reverse logistics, automated and safe sorting and dismantling, second use and recycling. While each project approached the topic through its own methodologies, the activities cover common and complementary processes across the battery reverse logistics value chain.
This provides an important opportunity to look beyond ind ividual project results. By identifying common experiences and constraints across the Cluster, the position paper is able to share lessons and recommendations to improve battery reverse logistics, leading to further development of Europe’s circular battery ecosystem.
Several questions emerged repeatedly from this collective experience: How can reliable battery diagnostics be scaled when access to battery ageing, operational and BMS information remains limited? What level of harmonisation is required for diagnostic, safety and digital solutions tooperate across different battery technologies? How can increasingly automated disassembly processes accommodate the diversity of battery designs entering the market? And under what conditions can technically successful second-life and circular solutions develop into economically sustainable business models?
The significance of these questions extends beyond the four projects. As increasing volumes of EV batteries reach the end of their first life, the ability to efficiently assess, transport, repurpose, dismantle and recycle batteries will become increasingly important for Europe’s resource efficiency, industrial competitiveness and resilience.
Translating research experience into policy priorities
The Circular Battery Cluster’s joint position paper, Enabling Europe’s Circular Battery Value Chain, consolidates this experience to examine the technical, regulatory and market conditions influencing the scale-up of battery reverse logistics in Europe.
Importantly, the paper does not seek to replace or duplicate the regulatory framework already being developed at European level. Instead, ituses evidence generated through research and innovation activities to examine where practical implementation challenges remain and where further coordination, standardisation or policy attention may be required.
The resulting position paper provides a collective perspective from four Horizon Europe projects on what is needed to move from successful research and innovation towards a scalable European circular battery ecosystem.
Access the paper here.
