What the site does
Detroit remains the centre of North American vehicle engineering, with assembly plants, technical centres and supplier headquarters spread across south-east Michigan and into neighbouring Ohio and Ontario. The closed-loop plant opened on the city's east side in 2017, making it the network's oldest site, and it was designed from the start to take material directly from that engineering and manufacturing ecosystem.
With 40,000 TPA of capacity it is the network's largest integrated campus. It handles prototype and validation packs, warranty returns, dealer retirements and plant scrap, grades the modules worth reusing and shreds the rest to black mass for North American refining. Years of intake have given the site the broadest record of pack architectures anywhere in the network. Engineering teams use its reports to understand how their designs aged in the field.
What arrives at the gate
Feedstock at Detroit, Michigan reflects its catchment and plant type. Every consignment is weighed, photographed and logged against the originating manifest before it enters the process area.
- Prototype, validation and test packs from engineering centres
- Warranty and dealer returns from Midwest networks
- Cell and pack production scrap from regional plants
- Pickup truck and commercial packs from fleet operators
The process, step by step
The 3 operating lines — automated disassembly, cell grading & second-life build, black mass production — run the sequence below.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Intake inspection | Packs are logged, thermally scanned and quarantined if damaged, defective or water-exposed. |
| Safe discharge | Residual energy is recovered to the site microgrid before any mechanical work begins. |
| Automated disassembly | Robotic cells remove housings, cooling plates and wiring for separate material streams. |
| Grading split | Modules above 75% SOH move to second-life build; everything else is shredded under inert atmosphere. |
| Black mass production | Shredding, drying and multi-stage separation produce a graphite-rich black mass at controlled moisture. |
| Refining handover | Black mass is assayed, sealed and shipped to the assigned hydrometallurgical refinery. |
What sets the site apart
Prototype and test-pack handling. Engineering packs with non-standard layouts are disassembled under controlled procedures before grading.
North American black mass. Black mass produced here is refined in North America, supporting customers who document domestic material flows.
Deepest architecture library. Operating since 2017, the plant has handled a wider range of pack designs than any other site.
Where material goes next
Material that Detroit, Michigan does not finish on site moves to the nearest specialist facility in the network, keeping transport distances and dwell times down.
| Facility | Role | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta — Georgia Grading Centre | Cell Grading & Diagnostics | 961 km |
| Gothenburg — Nordic Second-Life Campus | Second-Life BESS Works | 6,413 km |
| Reno — Nevada Hydrometallurgy Refinery | Hydrometallurgical Refinery | 3,080 km |
Field note