Toyota Motor North America is expanding its battery** network through a new collaboration with Cirba Solutions, a premier battery** materials and management company. The agreement strengthens Toyota's growing relationship with Cirba Solutions by expanding Toyota's battery** network and optimizing its logistics network for end-of-life EV battery collection, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicle (BEV vehicles).
As one of the largest battery companies in North America, Cirba Solutions has extensive experience and offers a collection and ** network from coast to coast. Toyota's partnership with Cirba Solutions will focus on the collection, transportation, dismantling, and disposal of end-of-life lithium-ion EV batteries in the Midwest and East Coast regions. The processing will take place at Cirba Solutions' Lancaster, Ohio, facility, which recently received more than $82 million in grants from the Department of Energy under bipartisan infrastructure laws. The plant will employ advanced technology to extract critical minerals from waste and end-of-life batteries at up to 95% rates, and then re-enter the battery-grade metals into the chain.
Our partnership with Toyota contributes to our long-term vision of a sustainable closed-loop battery chain." With aligned goals and Toyota's growing EV lineup in North America, we are proud to partner with us." Jay Wago, Chief Commercial Officer, Cirba Solutions, said.
Toyota currently collects about 25,000 used car batteries annually from its dealer network, mainly nickel-metal hydride batteries found in hybrid electric vehicles, and expects the number of batteries, especially end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, to increase over time and the number of pure electric vehicles it sells in the future. Based on 2022 data, through an agreement with Cirba Solutions, Toyota expects to reduce its overall transportation and logistics costs by at least 70%, reducing the average mileage of collection and ** from 1,251 miles to 582 miles, with a focus on coastal areas in the Midwest and Eastern regions. In some cases, such as the Cincinnati area, the new** collaboration should reduce the total mileage of these activities by about 94%. In addition, the company expects to be able to significantly reduce transport-related emissions by reducing the mileage traveled for collection and ** activities.
Globally, Toyota has been the number one seller of electric vehicles for 25 consecutive years, while in North America, Toyota has sold more than 6.2 million plug-in hybrids and hybrids since 2000. With decades of EVs in the market, Toyota is focused on how to **, remanufacture, or repurpose the end-of-life car batteries used in Toyota's EVs, a number that will increase in the coming years. In fact, Toyota**, could double the number of its end-of-life batteries by 2030.
The company also has a new automotive battery plant, the Toyota Battery Manufacturing Plant (TBMNC) in North Carolina, which is currently under construction and is expected to start production in 2025, with a total announced investment of nearly $14 billion. Originally announced in 2021, the North Carolina plant will ramp up production in phases and will create more than 5,000 new jobs to support vehicles assembled in North America.