VinES is part of the same company group as Vietnamese automaker VinFast.
This initiative will allow VinFast to benefit from a closed-loop battery supply chain.
Li-Cycle is already present in North America and it wants to enter Europe soon.
Many automakers who are developing electric vehicles are also working on solutions to recycle the batteries that will be used in these vehicles, for both environmental and economic reasons.
This is the case at VinFast, a new Vietnamese automaker that is about to enter the North American market with two electric SUVs.
As is sometimes the case with Asian automakers (notably Hyundai), VinFast is only a part of a very large group that is active in many parts of its home country’s economy.
Another part of Vingroup, the entity that owns VinFast, is VinES Energy Solutions. This company is specialized in the development of batteries destined for electric vehicles and for energy storage purposes.
As such, VinES is the supplier that makes the batteries found in the VinFast VF8 and VF9 electric SUVs that will be offered in Canada and the US shortly.
Since the minerals needed for the production of lithium-ion batteries are non-renewable, companies are working out ways to reuse the lithium, cobalt, and nickel from older battery packs into brand-new ones.
This is where Li-Cycle comes in. This Canadian company reportedly developed new sustainable recycling technologies that will be leveraged by VinES and VinFast in order to create a closed-loop supply chain.
This means that once the battery in a VinFast vehicle reaches the end of its useful life, its minerals will be harvested and processed to be reused in batteries that will go back into another VinFast EV.
According to all involved, this solution will help reduce the emissions generated by the mining and transportation of minerals related to EV batteries.
Unlike VinFast and VinES, Li-Cycle is not a new player in North America since it was founded in Ontario in 2016.
Since then, the company entered the US and it now has a processing capacity of about 30,000 tons per year, which can supply new batteries to around 60,000 new electric vehicles.
