“After that, it’s unlimited, infinite, exponential growth possible,” Fleischer claimed. “Our idea is to operate the plants ourselves worldwide. We focus on Germany, on Europe, and then we go to North America. But after we reach that [FOAK] plant, we can expand Tozero on multiple dimensions around the world. So that’s going to be a key milestone for the next growth phase.”
The startup pointed to projections that global demand for lithium is expected to quadruple to 3.1 million metric tons by 2030, driven by rapid uptake of electric vehicles and growing need for large-scale renewable energy batteries. For context, lithium mining production yielded only 180,000 metric tons last year, so recycling will have a critical role to play in servicing that demand.