GM Battery Recycling Pilot Reaches Seven Customer-Bound EV Models

General Motors says material recovered from 80 end-of-life GM EV battery packs has completed a closed-loop pilot back into new cells installed in seven named EV variants now leaving U.S. assembly lines for customers. GM says the retired packs were processed with Cirba Solutions into black mass, the recovered material became more than 12 metric tons of cathode active material, Ultium Cells made new cells using that material, and GM assembled the cells into modules and packs at Factory ZERO and Spring Hill.¹²

The most important limit on that claim is easy to miss: GM says the pilot cathode material used 100% recycled nickel, cobalt and manganese. That does not establish that the whole cathode formulation, cell, pack or vehicle battery is 100% recycled, and the checked GM and Cirba sources do not establish 100% recycled lithium or graphite in these cells.¹²

GM names the customer-bound vehicles as the Cadillac LYRIQ, LYRIQ-V, VISTIQ, ESCALADE IQ and ESCALADE IQL, Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss, and GMC Sierra EV AT4.¹ The company does not disclose how many pilot cells, modules, packs or customer vehicles were produced, so the seven-model list should not be read as a volume figure.

The new step is customer-bound production, not another recycling agreement

GM has had battery-recycling programs for years. What changed on Sept. 22 is the documented stage the recovered material has reached.

Program	Documented stage in the checked source
GM / Ultium Cells + Li-Cycle, 2021	Recycling agreement for battery-cell manufacturing scrap, with recovered material intended for new batteries or adjacent uses.3
GM + Lithion, 2022	Partnership to validate recovered battery materials for new batteries and evaluate potential material acquisition.4
Porsche + cylib, Sept. 17, 2026	Recycled cathode material has reached test cells undergoing validation for possible later series-cell use.5
GM + Cirba pilot, Sept. 22, 2026	Material from end-of-life GM EV packs has reached new cells installed in seven named production EV variants that GM says are headed to customers.12

That progression is the useful distinction. The 2021 GM record was about recycling manufacturing scrap, and the 2022 Lithion announcement was about validating recovered materials for future battery use. GM's current pilot goes further in the company's documented chain: end-of-life packs were processed, recovered metals returned to cathode material, cells were manufactured, and those cells went into packs installed in customer-bound production vehicles.¹³⁴

The Porsche comparison is narrower than it may first appear. Porsche said on Sept. 17 that its pilot had produced test cells using cathode active material made from recycled lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, with those cells undergoing further testing for possible series use.⁵ GM says its own pilot material has already reached named production vehicles headed to customers.¹ That is a difference in documented program stage, not evidence that GM's recycling process is technically superior or more efficient.

What GM's pilot still does not establish

The announcement leaves the commercial scale unresolved. GM does not state how many vehicles contain the pilot cells, how much pilot material is in each vehicle, whether every named variant uses the same amount, or whether the recycled-content flow will become a recurring supply program.¹

GM also says its testing found that cells made with the recycled material performed as well as cells made with virgin material.¹ That remains a company-reported validation result: the checked public sources do not provide the underlying test protocol or data.

The clean takeaway is therefore narrower than a 100% recycled battery headline. GM has documented a pilot in which nickel, cobalt and manganese recovered from retired EV batteries returned to cathode material and then into cells installed in customer-bound production EVs. The milestone is the execution stage. The total recycled share of a full cell or pack, the production volume, and the path to recurring commercial scale remain unestablished in the checked sources.

Sources

Footnotes

1. How recycled minerals from GM EV batteries are helping power new ones — General Motors, Sept. 22, 2026. https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2026/sep/0922-recycled-minerals-gm-ev-batteries.html. Establishes the 80 end-of-life GM EV batteries, more than 12 metric tons of CAM, 100% recycled nickel/cobalt/manganese scope, Ultium Cells production, Factory ZERO/Spring Hill pack assembly, seven named customer-bound EV variants and GM's performance-validation claim. Does not publish pilot vehicle/cell counts, full-cell recycled-content percentage, scale-up volume or underlying performance-test data. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Closing the Loop: Battery Recycling Pilot Uses 100% Recycled Critical Minerals to Power New GM EVs — Cirba Solutions via PR Newswire, Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/closing-the-loop-battery-recycling-pilot-uses-100-recycled-critical-minerals-to-power-new-gm-evs-302886163.html. Establishes Cirba's Ohio black-mass processing role, the 100% recycled nickel/cobalt/manganese CAM wording, Ultium Cells cell production and GM's Factory ZERO/Spring Hill pack assembly chain. Promotional partner source; does not independently validate performance, cost or environmental claims. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Ultium Cells LLC and Li-Cycle Collaborate to Expand Recycling in North America — General Motors / Ultium Cells, May 11, 2021. https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2021/may/0511-ultium.html. Establishes the earlier GM/Ultium manufacturing-scrap recycling agreement and intended reuse of recovered material. Historical company source; not proof of the later customer-vehicle pilot. ↩ ↩²

4. GM and Lithion announce investment toward EV battery recycling — General Motors / Lithion Recycling, Sept. 22, 2022. https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2022/sep/0922-lithion.html. Establishes the 2022 partnership's recovered-material validation and potential material-acquisition stage. It does not establish customer-bound production vehicles using that material. ↩ ↩²

5. From Porsche to Porsche: Nächster Meilenstein im Batterierecycling — Porsche AG, Sept. 17, 2026. https://newsroom.porsche.com/de/2026/unternehmen/porsche-cylib-batterierecycling-43261.html. Establishes Porsche/cylib's recycled-CAM test-cell and validation stage and possible future series use. It is a different pilot and supports only a bounded stage comparison, not a technology-superiority claim. ↩ ↩²