Toyota Group opens car battery recycling plant in Thailand
Toyota Motor Thailand has opened a Battery Lifecycle Management plant in Chachoengsao, the first facility outside Japan, to circulate 3R (recovery, reuse and recycling) hybrid vehicle batteries sold in Thailand.
The new venture is a partner of Toyota subsidiaries, which include Toyota Daihatsu Engineering & Manufacturing (TDEM), Toyota Tsusho Thailand and others.
The facility is operated by TTK Logistics Thailand, a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho, and is located adjacent to Toyota's passenger car and battery assembly plant in Chachengsau.
Ninnart Chaichirapinho, chairman of Toyota Motor Thailand, said the plant will be able to quickly diagnose 10,000 units per year and process 20,000 units per year.
“This facility will serve not only Toyota hybrid vehicles, but also other brands of batteries and electrical devices,” Ninnart said.
After a quick diagnostic process, the high performance modules will be reassembled and sold as refurbished for one third the cost of new batteries.
Low-efficiency modules such as NiMH and Li-Ion will be recycled and sent back to Japan to make new hybrid batteries.
Mr Ninnart said Toyota has been exploring the circular economy concept of renewable resources for two years and is applying technology developed by Primearth EV Energy and Toyota Energy Solutions, among others.
Toyota has spent 19 billion baht (about US $ 627 million) on hybrid vehicles in Thailand, with plans to assemble 7,000 hybrid vehicles a year, 70,000 batteries and 9.1 million other components at Gateway's Chachengsau plant. p>