In short: UK cleantech company Altilium has secured £18.5 million in grant funding from the government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund to build ACT3, the country’s first commercial refinery to recover critical minerals from end-of-life electric vehicle batteries. The facility in Plymouth, Devon, will process 24,000 EV batteries per year using Altilium’s proprietary EcoCathode™ process, produce battery-grade materials with up to 74% lower carbon emissions than mined equivalents, and support 70 new jobs. A second, separate DRIVE35 grant is funding a parallel research project with luxury car manufacturer JLR and Warwick Manufacturing Group to produce EV battery cells made from both recycled cathode and recycled anode materials for the first time in the UK.
Foundation and what unlocks it
The £18.5 million comes through the DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, run by the Department for Business and Trade in partnership with the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Center and Innovate UK. DRIVE35 is part of the UK government’s wider £2.5bn commitment to accelerate domestic electric vehicle supply chain and battery manufacturing capacity. At once Private investment in Europe’s climate technology has fallen to a five-year low in early 2025Government-backed industry grants have become an increasingly critical source of capital for companies building the physical infrastructure required by the energy transition.
Altilium, which has previously raised more than £17 million in private investment from strategic partners including Marubeni Corporation and Mizuho Bank, described the announcement as a milestone. “This funding marks a significant milestone for Altilium and the UK battery ecosystem“said COO and co-founder Dr Christian Marston.”By expanding our recycling technology and building the UK’s first commercial facility of its kind, we are closing the loop on battery materials and increasing the growth, productivity and competitiveness of the UK automotive supply chain..” The grant is also expected to unlock additional private investment from new and existing shareholders.
What will the ACT3 plant produce?
ACT3 will be built in Plymouth, Devon, where Altilium already operates the UK’s only hydrometallurgical pilot plant for electric battery recycling. The construction of the facility has already been completed; the installation of the equipment is planned to start in the summer of 2026, and commissioning is planned for the end of 2027. Once operational, ACT3 will process 24,000 end-of-life EV batteries per year using Altilium’s EcoCathode™ hydrometallurgical process. The outputs are critical intermediate materials used in battery cell production: nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, lithium sulfate and graphite, all necessary inputs for next-generation cathode and anode production. Based on an independent life cycle assessment, these recycled materials carry up to 74% lower carbon emissions than their manufactured equivalents.
💜 of EU technology
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise founder Boris and some questionable AI art. Free in your inbox every week. Register now!
The plant will create 70 new jobs in the Plymouth area. Altilium is not alone in pushing this model toward commercial scale: Tozero launches Europe’s first industrial battery recycling plant in Germany in March 2026along with the volume of batteries nearing the end of their lives, a signal that the continent’s renewable capacity is increasing.
Why did the supply chain dispute become relevant?
The strategic logic behind ACT3 is simple. Indonesia is the dominant global supplier of nickel mixed hydroxide precipitates, while China processes most of the world’s lithium and graphite for battery production. British carmakers building their EV supply chains face a complex set of risks: geopolitical disruption, price volatility and export controls China imposes on graphite in late 2024 and extends to a range of lithium-battery inputs by 2025. The trade tariffs have exacerbated existing concerns about supply chain security for hardware and materials in European industry Strengthen the political and commercial case for domestic alternatives in 2025. Altilium’s recycling facilities offer a way out of this dependency. European battery companies can differ from Asian manufacturers in terms of durability, recyclability and regulatory compliance. more than unit cost, and the provenance and carbon credentials of recycled British battery materials is the value proposition that enables them to do this. The recycled materials produced by Altilium have proven life-cycle assessment data showing a 74% reduction in emissions, a number that is becoming increasingly significant as automotive customers face their own pressure to decarbonize their supply chains.
Roadmap and partnership
ACT3 was developed as the first step of a two-stage internal construction. Altilium’s planned ACT4 facility in Teesside, northeast England, is sized to process 150,000 end-of-life EV batteries per year and produce 30,000 tonnes of cathode active material per year, which is currently forecast to meet around 20% of the UK’s demand for battery materials. The UK has attempted to build significant domestic battery recovery infrastructure.
A second DRIVE35 grant announced at the same time is funding a joint R&D project with JLR and Warwick Manufacturing Group. Building on the UK’s previous Advanced Propulsion Center program which demonstrated the first battery cells produced from recycled cathode active materials, the new project extends the work to include recycled graphite on the anode side. “With the inclusion of recycled graphite in this new project, the UK will now have a viable route to produce both cathode and anode materials domestically.said Marston,is an important step for automakers seeking supply chain sustainability and sustainable battery materials.“
Altilium’s investor base is built with the Japanese automotive market in mind: Marubeni Corporation took a strategic position in January 2025 and Mizuho Bank in March 2025 providing access to supply chain networks and market intelligence that will be important as Altilium scales in the region. In 2025, artificial intelligence is set to be the defining technology of the decadebut the supply chain of recycled critical minerals that underpins the energy transition will prove central to the technology story of the decade, as will the models that work on it.
