The first battery recycling plant in Europe, owned by Germany’s luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz, began operations on Monday in the southern German town of Kuppenheim.

With an investment totaling tens of millions of euros, the plant can recover over 96 percent of used batteries and transform 2,500 tonnes of recovered materials into more than 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric Mercedes-Benz models annually, the company said in a press release.

Using an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process, the plant breaks down, separates, and retrieves battery materials for reuse in a net carbon-neutral facility. This approach consumes less energy due to low processing temperatures and is powered by green electricity generated by a photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the plant.

The plant marks a key milestone toward enhancing raw materials sustainability, said Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. “Together with our partners from industry and science, we are sending a strong signal of innovative strength for sustainable electric mobility and value creation in Germany and Europe.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Thekla Walker, the environment minister of the southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, attended the plant’s opening ceremony.