From Waste to Value: Circu Li-ion March 2025 update

2025 has started strong over here at Circu Li-ion! Expanding into new markets, forming key ecosystem partnerships, and making great strides in technological advancements—this first quarter has been all about scaling up.

Pushing to new frontiers of Battery Disassembly

This quarter, we have enhanced our technology and operations to make automated disassembly faster and smarter:

✅ 1-Shift Operations – We've transitioned to a structured shift system, increasing throughput and efficiency for our Disassembly as a Service (DaaS), available to our customers.

✅ AI-Assisted Recipe Creation – We are leveraging AI to automate disassembly recipe generation, making the process faster & more adaptable to different battery models.

✅ Full-Stack Disassembly Evaluation – We’ve made significant progress towards our ultimate objective: a fully automated disassembly system capable of can handling complex battery architectures and breaking them down to cell level.

Strengthening Our Reach: France & Luxembourg

🇫🇷 Growing Our Presence in the French Market

Circu Li-ion was present at Batterie Expo Lille, where we connected with numerous industry players looking for innovative solutions in battery recycling and automation. In light of the growing French battery ecosystem and the emergence of the new Battery Valley in Hauts de France, we are strengthening our French footprint to continue to accelerate the French market.

🇱🇺 Strengthening Our Ecosystem in Luxembourg

Circu Li-ion had the honor of welcoming the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the Minister of Economy Luc Frieden Lex Dells to The Circular. The visit highlighted Luxembourg’s support of homegrown deep-tech startups and sustainable innovation as key cornerstone of the future of the Luxembourgish economy.

We also had the pleasure of hosting Andy Maxant, CEO of Ecobatterien, reinforcing our commitment to working with key circular economy stakeholders.

💡 Case Study & Industry Insights: The Next Challenge in EV Recycling: e-Motor disassembly

Every year, over 9 million tons of material from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) could be recovered in a circular economy in Europe. Yet today, only a fraction is properly recycled. Take Germany as an example: only 15% of the country’s 2.9 million ELVs are treated locally [1].

That’s about to change. The new ELV regulation, expected to enter into force by the end of 2025, will introduce stricter quotas for reuse, repair, and recycling, along with higher transparency requirements to keep materials within EU borders [2].

With more ELVs being processed locally, electric vehicles will make up a growing share. While much attention has been placed on batteries (rightfully so, given they account for ~40% of total vehicle cost), there’s another major component that needs urgent attention: the e-motor.

Why E-Motor Recycling Matters

Today, 80% of e-motors use permanent magnet (PM) technology, containing 1.3kg of rare earth (REE) magnets per unit. China dominates the REE supply chain, controlling >90% of the market [3]. The EU set a 40% local PM recycling target, but only 22% is being achieved today [3].

Beyond magnets, a typical e-motor contains copper (10% of its weight), aluminum (32%), and electrical steel (47%)—all of which are crucial for a sustainable circular economy. The challenge? Current disassembly processes are slow, costly, and highly manual [4].

The Case for Automation

Efficient disassembly is key to making e-motor recycling economically viable. A typical process involves:

• Motor removal from vehicle
• Casing disassembly
• Internal component separation
• Stator & rotor disassembly
• Permanent magnet recovery

But automating this process isn’t simple. Challenges include:

• High design variety – most motors today aren’t built for circularity
• Complex disassembly steps – requiring precision and adaptability
• End-of-life product variability – corrosion, wear and tear, unknown usage history
• Limited data on part conditions – making sorting and grading difficult

Circu Li-ion: Bringing Battery Disassembly Tech to E-Motors

At Circu Li-ion, our vision has always been clear: disassemble to drive down the cost of circularity. The good news? Our battery disassembly technology is highly transferable to e-motors.

Our platform combines:

✅ AI-enabled detection & categorization of parts

✅ Computer vision & adaptive robotics for flexibility of various designs

✅ Smart software solutions to assess condition and optimize recovery

✅ AI-based grading for optimal material recovery

Partners active in battery disassembly are now shifting to e-motors, and we’re excited to work alongside some of them in a large-scale grant project—stay tuned!

The future of circular e-mobility starts with better disassembly.

Sources: [1] Umweltbundesamt, 2024 ; [2] EU Commissions, 2023; draft still open for commentary ; [3] JRC report on Circularity measure on critical raw materials and e-drive motors in vehicles, 2025; [4] Reuters, 2024

Leading the urban mining revolution

• On our website you can find more information of our key services: DaaS, MaaS, and CircuFit—making it easier for our partners to explore how Circu Li-ion can support their battery lifecycle needs.
• Our vision is clear: becoming product-agnostic. With X-DL: The Future, we are driving the next evolution of automated disassembly lines—starting with drive-trains, expanding to EVs, and beyond.

A Word from the CEO

“At Circu Li-ion, we don’t just talk about change—we make it happen. From the beginning, our goal has been clear: to revolutionize battery reuse and recycling through automation. We have reached key milestones, from securing major certifications (BImSchG, Entsorgungsfachbetrieb) to launching new client partnerships that push our vision further. This year, we are taking another step forward. Scaling up and expanding our automated disassembly solutions beyond batteries. This newsletter will keep you up to date on our innovations, insights, as well as challenges we tackle along the way. Stay tuned!”

Antoine Welter, CEO at Circu Li-ion

📩 Let’s Talk!

If you're interested in:

✅ Exploring potential collaboration

✅ Visiting our facilities

✅ Seeing our technology in action

Let’s connect! Reach out or visit our website to schedule a conversation.

🔗 www.circuli-ion.com