NIO Capital has invested in Ruilong Technology, a battery recycling company, as it looks to expand its presence in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry chain. The investment comes as part of a Series A funding round worth hundreds of millions of RMB, which was led by NIO Capital and also included participation from Midea Capital and other investors.
The funding will allow Ruilong to increase its efforts in developing waste battery procurement channels and technology. According to Zhu Yan, managing partner of NIO Capital, battery recycling has important environmental, economic, and supply chain security implications as the NEV market continues to grow.
Ruilong, which was founded in 2016 and specializes in the large-scale industrial use of automotive and digital batteries, has signed partnership agreements with several battery manufacturers and already operates four recycling plants, three of which are currently in operation. The company has a capacity of 100,000 tons for battery dismantling and tens of thousands of tons for wet smelting of battery-grade cobalt, nickel, and lithium products.
Ruilong Technology uses retired and used lithium batteries as raw material to effectively recycle a wide range of lithium-ion batteries. As the NEV industry continues to grow, the power battery recycling market has gained increasing attention.
Market research firm GGII has predicted that the global battery recycling market will exceed 100 billion RMB by 2025 and reach 150 billion RMB by 2027. NIO Capital is a fund created by William Li, the founder, chairman, and CEO of electric vehicle company NIO, who also serves as its managing partner.