Imagine a greener battery...

But what do we mean by that?

This exhibit represents our vision of a greener battery - no we do not want to produce batteries made from wood any time soon, but we want to share our ambition of what an environmentally friendlier battery and its required processes and materials might look like.

With the green battery project Webasto is accelerating its journey towards a greener battery and is thereby rethinking all decisions regarding people, products and processes, in order to improve sustainability.

According to our value “responsibility with a long-term view”, we understand sustainability holistically, including social aspects and economic views, starting with a sustainable mindset.

Thereby our focus lies on the principles of circularity and the main driver of the product carbon footprint. Therefore, we are investigating the following five fields of action:

Circular economy

Unlike the traditional linear economy, which follows a "take, make, dispose“ approach, the circular economy seeks to create a closed-loop system. Products, components and materials are kept in use for as long as possible; materials are then returned to the cycle. It also includes material flow from cradle to cradle and 'battery as a service'-model to realize circular economy. To reach that target, we are working on different topics and with ambitious partners to support the implementation of circular economy.

Design for circularity

Circular design is an approach to create products, materials, and processes that follow the principles of a circular economy. The goal of circular design is to maximize resource efficiency, minimize waste, and promote long-term sustainability. We strive for an optimized design for manufacturing and recycling and future assembly technologies to ensure design for circularity.

Sustainable materials

Sustainable materials are produced and used in a way that minimize their negative environmental impact. One part of our efforts for more sustainable materials is to reduce their CO2 emissions. Challenging the materials, that a battery is comprised of, is the biggest lever for us to reduce emissions in battery production. We conduct life cycle assessments (LCA’s) to gain transparency on the footprint of our products and projects.

Green cell

The cell is the main driver for CO2 emissions within the battery and, thus, even as a purchased part in our focus. For us, a 'green cell' means a cell that has been designed and manufactured with a strong focus on sustainability. Ideally, in the future we use intrinsically safe green cells, with nickel and cobalt free electrochemistry and cell cooling by biodegradable oils.

Green production

We think along the entire development, production and product cycle and are actively working with various initiatives and projects to reduce our carbon footprint. At our plant in Schierling we already make use of renewable energy and CO2-neutral logistics for green production.

Aiming for green production

A remarkable example for how a green production might look like in the future is our plant in Schierling.

We already use an intelligent energy management system to provide our production with green energy generated from solar power. In this power cycle we also integrated an energy storage reusing our batteries in a second life cycle, to supply the plant with green energy in lower sun-energy phases.

In the coming years, the site will be continuously developed - with sustainability as the guiding principle.

Committed to Sustainability

In line with our corporate values, we are shaping the climate-neutral mobility of the future with our innovative drive, expertise and global network. For us, environmentally and socially responsible management is explicitly not based on short-term profit maximization, but on long-term strategies and value generation.

Learn more about our journey towards a sustainable future on our sustanability page, where you can get detailed insights about the different targets and strategies.

Learn more

Get in touch with us!

You like the idea of implementing a greener battery and rethinking its components and materials? If you have any beneficial suggestions or inspiring ideas regarding our green battery project and want to get in touch with us, please feel free to reach out.

We are really looking forward to your feedback and ideas about our vision!