Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer, announced Friday that it has produced the first cell using “100%” recycled nickel and manganese.

In a statement, the Stockholm-headquartered company — which has attracted investmentFrom Goldman SachsAnd Volkswagen, among others — said the lithium-ion battery cell was manufactured by its recycling program, Revolt.

The cell’s nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode had been produced using metals “recovered through the recycling of battery waste.” Northvolt claimed that tests showed the cells performed at par with those made from freshly mined metals.

According to the company, it will expand the capacity of its existing recycling facility so that 125,000 tons can be recycled annually.

Revolt Ett is scheduled to start construction in the first quarter 2022 and operations in 2023.

The company’s scrap and EV batteries will be used. It is also expected that the first battery from Northvolt Ett (the gigafactory) will be made before 2021. Both facilities will be located in Skellefteå, northern Sweden.

The company claims that the Revolt plant can recycle lithium, cobalt and manganese, and supply the gigafactory with the result.

Plastics, aluminum, and copper will be “recirculated” back to local manufacturing flows by third parties.

CNBC conducted a telephone interview. Emma Nehrenheim (Northvolt’s chief environmentally officer) stated that it is theoretically possible to recycle any metal in a battery, and create a brand new one.

“As a fundamental strategy, this means that when the market of EVs is mature — so, at the point where [an] equal amount of cars would enter the street as the amount of cars needing to be scrapped or sent off for recycling — you can actually, in theory, have a very, very high recycling rate … of batteries.”

Nehrenheim said, “And that means you wouldn’t be subject to very liquid raw materials markets and you would also have protection from very high footprints.”

Northvolt’s plans are made at a moment when electric vehicle transition is gaining momentum.

The signatories of a declaration signed at the COP26 Climate Change Summit this week stated that they “work for all sales to be zero emissions globally by 2040 and in top markets by 2035.”

The U.S., China, and automakers such as Volkswagen are all in the same boat. ToyotaWhile they were not included in the declaration, signing parties did include representatives from Canada, the U.K, Mexico and Canadian governments, as well as major automobile companies like Ford General MotorsAnd Volvo Cars

Global supply chains are under severe pressure from a variety of factors. The idea of recycling and creating a circular economy has become attractive to many businesses including the electric car sector.

In March of this year, Lucien Mathieu, from the Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment, sought to highlight the potential of recycling in the EV industry.  

In a statement on T&E’s website, he said: “Unlike today’s fossil fuel powered cars, electric car batteries are part of a circular economy loop where battery materials can be reused and recovered to produce more batteries.”

Mathieu claimed that the recycling of batteries materials was vital in order to reduce “the pressure for primary demand” and limit “the effects raw material extraction could have on both communities and the environment.”