The Kion Group aims to recycle 5,000 T of battery material, the equivalent of 15,000 large lithium-ion forklift batteries, by 2030.

Kion struck a battery recycling deal with Canada’s Li-Cycle Holding in March and the recycling is now underway at Li-Cycles new recycling plant in Magdeburg in Germany.

“We firmly believe that lithium-ion is the drive technology of the future,” says Kion Group chief technology officer Henry Puhl. “That is why it is so important to us to make the technology part of a closed loop – from manufacturing and usage through to resource recovery.

The Kion Group produces its own lithium-ion batteries at its plant in Karlstein am Main, which are installed the electric-powered industrial trucks of Kion brand companies Linde, Fenwick, Still and Baoli, as well as in automated warehouse logistics systems. 

“Together with Li-Cycle, we are now closing the loop and ensuring that nearly all of the valuable materials, including lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel, are recovered from the lithium-ion batteries used in our trucks,” Puhl says. “These resources can then be used to make new batteries.”

Puhl says 88% of the industrial trucks sold by Kion group brands last year were electric.

“We want to ensure that lithium-ion batteries do not end up in landfills but instead that all their components are recycled in an environmentally responsible manner,” says Richard Storrie, Li-Cycle’s president for the EMEA region. 

The recycling process recovers up to 95% of the battery’s valuable minerals and materials.