UK startup Altilium raises £18.5m for first commercial EV battery refinery

A major UK government grant is accelerating the construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale plant for recycling electric vehicle batteries. Clean tech firm Altilium has secured £18.5 million from the DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund to build its ACT3 facility in Plymouth, Devon. This strategic investment marks a significant step toward establishing a domestic, circular supply chain for the critical minerals essential to the automotive industry’s electric future.

The funding arrives at a crucial time. With private climate tech investment in Europe hitting a five-year low earlier this year, government-backed capital has become vital for building the physical infrastructure of the energy transition. For Altilium, which had previously raised over £17 million from private partners like Marubeni Corporation and Mizuho Bank, this grant is transformative. Dr Christian Marston, the company’s COO and co-founder, called it a pivotal moment for both the company and the UK’s battery ecosystem, stating it will help close the loop on battery materials and boost the competitiveness of the national automotive supply chain. The public funding is also anticipated to catalyze further private investment.

Scheduled to begin equipment installation in the summer of 2026, the ACT3 plant will process an estimated 24,000 end-of-life EV batteries annually. It will employ Altilium’s proprietary EcoCathode™ hydrometallurgical process, which recovers over 95% of cathode metals and more than 99% of graphite from battery scrap. The output will be battery-grade intermediate materials, including nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, lithium sulphate, and graphite. An independent lifecycle assessment confirms these recycled materials generate up to 74% lower carbon emissions compared to newly mined equivalents. The facility is expected to create 70 new jobs in Plymouth.

The urgency for such domestic capacity is clear. The global supply for key battery inputs is concentrated, with Indonesia dominating nickel supply and China processing most of the world’s lithium and graphite. This creates compounded risks for UK manufacturers, including geopolitical disruption, price volatility, and export controls, such as those China imposed on graphite in late 2024. Altilium’s operation offers a pathway to greater supply chain resilience, allowing European battery makers to compete on sustainability and low-carbon credentials rather than unit cost alone.

ACT3 is just the first phase of a larger national strategy. Altilium has already planned a second, much larger facility, ACT4, in Teesside. That plant is designed to process 150,000 batteries per year and produce enough cathode active material to meet an estimated 20% of UK demand by 2030. Together, these projects would form the UK’s most substantial battery material recovery infrastructure.

A separate, simultaneous DRIVE35 grant is funding a collaborative research project with JLR and Warwick Manufacturing Group. This initiative aims to produce the UK’s first EV battery cells incorporating both recycled cathode and recycled anode materials. Marston emphasized that creating a viable domestic route for both anode and cathode materials is an essential step for carmakers seeking sustainable and secure supply chains.

Altilium’s strategic partnerships with Japanese firms like Marubeni and Mizuho Bank provide vital access to supply chain networks and intelligence in a key automotive market. While artificial intelligence may dominate headlines, building a robust, circular supply chain for critical minerals is proving equally foundational to this decade’s technological and industrial transformation.