We wrote about previous efforts from Tesla and BMW regarding battery recycling, as both companies look forward to recovering as much battery components as possible in order to become more sustainable and rely less on raw materials.

Autoweek reports that Volkswagen looks to join the car brands that will recycle used batteries to recover usable materials, and the German car maker aims to work with some partners to do this multiple times.

The industry-first effort, which is named HVBatCycle, wants to keep the cathode materials, graphite and electrolyte in a permanent close cycle.

Volkswagen will work for three years with partners including J. Schmalz GmbH, Viscom AG and three universities, among others, in order to develop the required process to fulfill its goal.

Sebastian Wolf, chief operating officer-battery cell at Volkswagen AG, said that "the recycling of batteries and production rejects makes a decisive contribution to securing the supply of raw materials for our planned factories. Through the HVBatCycle project, a holistic view of the recycling processes and thereby the implementation of the closed loop of battery materials is being prepared."

The company opened a pilot plant in Salzgitter, Germany, for recycling batteries, but even that process isn't perfect. Volkswagen will be able to recycle only 3.600 battery packs per year at the new facility, reusing over 90% of the battery components.

By creating a closed loop for the batteries, the company will hopefully be able to reduce its energy consumption when compared to sourcing the materials fresh from natural resources.

While there are quite a few technological challenges when it comes to the development of a process that implies recycling a battery multiple times, this might become a trend among carmakers, as EVs are becoming more popular and batteries are going to become more and more important.

"This favors a local circular economy and secures strategically important raw materials, which significantly reduces Europe’s dependence on other regions of the world", officials added.