Why Gothenburg matters
Volvo Cars and Polestar headquarters. Active names in and around the city include Volvo Cars, Polestar, Volvo Group.
OEM head offices and engineering centres produce prototype and validation packs, recall and warranty returns routed through central teams, and programme fleet retirements. Volumes are lumpy but the packs are often high-value and come with full engineering data.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Serving site | Gothenburg — Nordic Second-Life Campus (Second-Life BESS Works) |
| Pickup SLA | 24 hours |
| Coverage radius | 66 km |
| Collection cadence | Called off against a framework agreement |
| Regulatory framework | EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and the Swedish battery ordinance |
How collection works here
We work under a framework take-back agreement with the OEM's central sustainability or aftersales team, covering pricing methodology, EPR certificate transfer and confidential handling of prototype hardware, including destruction certificates where required.
Loads move in Class 9 compliant transport with pre-filled dangerous goods paperwork to Gothenburg, Sweden, where they are weighed, logged and graded.
- OEM sustainability and aftersales teams
- Engineering and validation centres
- Programme and demo fleets
- Recall coordination teams
What the rules require in Sweden
The EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 applies directly, replacing the old Batteries Directive with extended producer responsibility, collection and material recovery targets, recycled-content rules and, from February 2027, a digital battery passport for EV and larger industrial batteries. Swedish producers must report to the Environmental Protection Agency and provide take-back, often through collective schemes, and county administrative boards and municipalities supervise treatment sites.
Road transport follows ADR, and cross-border shipments follow the EU Waste Shipment Regulation.
- Register as a producer with the Environmental Protection Agency
- Provide take-back for EV and industrial batteries
- Use permitted treatment facilities
- Prepare battery passport data for in-scope batteries
Field note
What you get paid and what you file
Settlement is quoted per pack after measured state of health, not by guesswork on age. Modules holding 75% or more of rated capacity settle at second-life rates; the remainder settle against black mass metal content.
Certificates carry achieved recovery percentages and downstream vendor disclosure for reporting under EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and the Swedish battery ordinance.