Electrive writes that the new EU project wants to help automotive companies manufacture and recycle batteries in a more efficient way and it will run throughout 2025 in order to help the battery value chain become more sustainable as a whole.

HiQ-LCA is a project funded by EIT RawMaterials and the European Union with 3.5 million euros and its purpose it to assess the emissions associated with the production of batteries. This regulation would imply the requirement for a carbon footprint data linked to every newly-manufactured battery.

The database will be made available with the help of ecoinvent, the partner of the project. The team responsible for this project will also help industry members in the battery-making industry become more sustainable by offering training sessions in order to aid them use the resources at hand more efficiently.

As far as the future of the automotive industry is concerned, we know for sure that electric vehicles are the clean way to go. But there's an issue regarding how we'll power our future zero-emission cars, more specifically if we'll have enough batteries to keep them going. Many experts seem to agree on the fact that recycling is our best option to ensure the supply and this is the reason.

Through this project, stakeholders should be able to better differentiate between "green" and "dirty" batteries when looking to purchase the most eco-friendly option.

Andreas Bittner, CEO of the European Lithium Institute eLi, who coordinates the HiQ‐LCA project, said that "batteries are the key for decarbonization of mobility and energy supply, but the critical resource demand and the environmental footprint of production reveal potential for improvement."