Since March 2013, Honda has been supplying a Japanese battery manufacturer with rare-earth metals extracted from used nickel-metal hydride batteries for re-use in new batteries for hybrid vehicles. Now, the car-maker is expanding the programme to re-use extracted rare-earth metals in motors for hybrid vehicles, thus recycling these limited resources further.
The three companies plan to start the new process as soon as they have enough used nickel-metal hydride batteries to make the project practical.