As Ascend Elements is building billions dollars worth of electric vehicle battery recycling facilities in America and Europe, the Westborough firm has inked a deal with an Atlanta logistics organization to manage the flow of those materials.
The collaborative effort will utilize the EV recycling capabilities and technologies of Ascend and Atlanta not-for-profit Call2Recycle’s collection, logistics, and tracking capacities, according to a joint press release Tuesday. The organizations expect more than 300,000 EV battery packs to move through the system by 2030.
“This new program will help automotive dealerships, repair shops and recyclers prepare for the wave of EV batteries that is expected in the coming years,” Ian Braime, chief commercial officer at Ascend Elements, said in the release.Â
The program will allow auto dealerships, recyclers, and repair facilities digital access to Call2Recycle’s GreenTraxEV, a customizable cloud-based EV battery shipment platform used to streamline scheduling, routing, and logistics management of mid-life, end-of-life, and damaged-defective EV batteries.
The announcement specifically mentioned Ascend’s $50-million EV battery recycling plant in Georgia as part of the partnership, although the company is building facilities across the world, including its $1 billion, 1-million-square-foot facility in Kentucky, which is set to be managed by the American branch of the U.K.-based Ernst & Young.
In September, Ascend established a joint venture with South Korean ecoplant, SK, to construct a $65-million, 100,000-square-foot lithium-ion battery recycling facility near the $1-billion Kentucky facility, and in April Ascend teamed up with Elemental Strategic Metals out of Poland to build two European battery recycling plants. Ascend is led by CEO Mike O’Kronley.
