Schaeffler wants to recycle electric axle components

While the term ‘recycling’ in the context of ‘batteries’ usually refers to the disposal and reuse of rare earths in the battery itself and the device as a whole, often referred to as a ‘second life’ in stationary applications, Schaeffler is exploring a different frontier. In fact, the goal for the German group is to develop an industrial, automated, scalable, and non-destructive recycling concept for electric axles.

Schaeffler is coordinating the lighthouse project ReDriveS – funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy – with 25 partners from industry, SMEs, and academia. ReDriveS will therefore not just provide a technological advantage for complying with statutory recycling requirements but will also ensure future cost-effective access to high-value raw materials like rare earths. ReDriveS has a project volume of over €25 million, with total funding exceeding €16 million. The project will run for a period of 36 months and will play a key role in driving sustainable transformation in the mobility and automotive industry.

A second life for Schaeffler’s electric axles: the ReDriveS project

“With ReDriveS, we are launching a key project for the circular economy in electric mobility as consortium leader, together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and strong partners”, said Tim Hosenfeldt, Head of Central Technologies at Schaeffler. “Our goal is to make electric axle drives significantly more resource-efficient through digital twins, automated disassembly, and high-quality recycling – thereby securing raw materials and supply chains, reducing CO₂ emissions, and strengthening Germany as a location overall.”

Rare earths in magnets, as well as copper, aluminum, steel, and electronic components, play an especially important role. The scalable disassembly concept will support the repair of the axle drive, the reuse of subcomponents, or their recycling. An evaluation matrix processes information about the condition and geometry of the respective electric axle drives and will be able to derive economic disassembly scenarios for the disassembly robot. To this end, Schaeffler’s second key task alongside project management is to develop a demonstrator linked to a digital twin that collects and processes data over the entire lifecycle of an electric axle drive.

The role of the digital twin

Depending on the condition of the electric axle drive components, the electric axle drive can be dismantled only into its main units (typically: motor, inverter, transmission) or broken down to component level (for recycling). The generic digital twin created in the project can be used independently of manufacturer.

Regarding further market development of electric axle drives as a cornerstone of sustainable mobility, ReDriveS will also develop new data-based business models for axle drives. The digital twin is an important prerequisite for this as well.