German Chancellor Attacks EU BEV Tariffs

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz uses the opening of Mercedes-Benz’s new battery recycling plant to justify his country’s failed vote against the European Union’s tariffs on subsidized battery-electric vehicles from China.

He says European companies should not be afraid of inexpensive Chinese BEVs while admitting that he is concerned over any retaliation that could harm his nation’s automakers.

That’s because the big German automakers achieve about a third of their global revenues from sales of their products in China and are hugely exposed to any tit-for-tat trade tariffs from China.

In a speech reported by Reuters, Scholz addresses the opening ceremony of the plant in Kuppenheim in southwestern Germany, saying: “Some say that China can do much better with electric motors than us. German companies need not be afraid of this competition. I'm against tariffs that harm us.”

He adds that the EU should use tariffs where dumping and subsidies put European producers at a disadvantage, for example, in the steel industry.

Scholz says Mercedes-Benz’s recycling factory is a part of Germany's new industrial policy agenda. It claims an annual capacity of 2,500 metric tons of recovered material that will feed into the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for Mercedes-Benz BEV models.

The factory is Europe's first battery recycling plant using an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process and aims to achieve a material recovery rate of more than 96% and net CO2-neutral operation.

This mechanical process sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminum and iron in a complex, multi-stage process. The downstream hydrometallurgical process is dedicated to the so-called black mass. These are the active materials that make up the electrodes of the battery cells.

Valuable metals cobalt, nickel and lithium are extracted individually in a multi-stage chemical process. These recyclates are of battery quality and therefore suitable for use in the production of new battery cells.

Ola Källenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz, says: “Mercedes-Benz has set itself the goal of building the most desirable cars in a sustainable way. As a pioneer in automotive engineering, Europe's first integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical battery recycling factory marks a key milestone towards enhancing raw-materials sustainability.

"Together with our partners from industry and science, we are sending a strong signal of innovative strength for sustainable electric mobility and value creation in Germany and Europe.”