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As Above So Below
Where 3 Million Electric Vehicle Batteries Will Go When They Retire
GM, Toyota and BYD are part of a potential $550 billion industry.
The first batches of batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting retirement age, yet they aren’t bound for landfills. Instead, they’ll spend their golden years chilling beer at 7-Elevens in Japan, powering car-charging stations in California and storing energy for homes and grids in Europe.
Lithium-ion car and bus batteries can collect and discharge electricity for another seven to 10 years after being taken off the roads and stripped from chassis—a shelf life with significant ramifications for global carmakers, electricity providers and raw-materials suppliers.
A used lithium-ion battery is taken out of a Nissan Leaf electric car.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg
Finding ways to reuse the technology is becoming more urgent as the global stockpile of EV batteries is forecast to exceed the equivalent of about 3.4 million packs by 2025, compared with about 55,000 this year, according to calculations based on Bloomberg NEF data.
China, where about half the world’s EVs are sold, is implementing rules in August to make carmakers responsible for expired batteries and to keep them out of landfills. The European Union has regulations, and the industry expects the U.S. to follow.
General Motors Co., BMW AG, Toyota Motor Corp., BYD Co. and a clutch of renewable-energy storage suppliers are among those trying to create an aftermarket and extra profits for a device that only recently coalesced into its own market. Second lives generate second revenue streams for the same product, and those could help lower prices for EVs.
“The car manufacturers have an upcoming problem, and one that we are already starting to see: this massive volume of batteries,” said Johan Stjernberg, chief executive officer of Box of Energy AB, a Swedish company working with Porsche and Volvo Cars. “The market will be enormous for second-life applications with storage.”
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“A lithium-ion battery actually never dies,” said Hans Eric Melin, founder of London-based Circular Energy Storage Research and Consulting. “It’s just like you can take an alkaline battery out of your flashlight and put it into a remote control, and it’ll still be good enough.”
By 2025, about three-quarters of spent EV batteries will be reused and then recycled to harvest raw materials, Melin said. That means automakers and battery producers such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. can profit from the same pack several times.
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Next Stop, Your House?
E-bus batteries will account for the bulk of second-life capacity through 2025
Source: Circular Energy Storage
Note: Other inclues e-bikes, e-scooters, industrial automation, UPS/data centers, telecom
“So far, it’s worked without a hitch,” said Lennart Nord, caretaker of the buildings in Gothenburg.
The technology can cut a household electricity bill by more than a third, said Powervault, which plans to break down Renault Zoe battery packs for use in homes and schools in England this summer. Powervault’s dishwasher-sized units can calculate when it’s most economical to recharge from the grid and when it’s best to tap into stored power.
A Relectrify power pack.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
Jeff Hardy, 44, is putting a Powervault unit in his Victorian terrace house in southeast London, and he expects to save about 110 pounds a year.
“It can basically supplement my solar and allow me to do more for free,” said Hardy, an academic and consultant on the energy sector. “The manufacturing of EV batteries does have an impact on the environment. The fact that this is a reused product means that it’s really reducing that footprint.”
More to read on the link...
.
GM, Toyota and BYD are part of a potential $550 billion industry.
The first batches of batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting retirement age, yet they aren’t bound for landfills. Instead, they’ll spend their golden years chilling beer at 7-Elevens in Japan, powering car-charging stations in California and storing energy for homes and grids in Europe.
Lithium-ion car and bus batteries can collect and discharge electricity for another seven to 10 years after being taken off the roads and stripped from chassis—a shelf life with significant ramifications for global carmakers, electricity providers and raw-materials suppliers.
A used lithium-ion battery is taken out of a Nissan Leaf electric car.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg
Finding ways to reuse the technology is becoming more urgent as the global stockpile of EV batteries is forecast to exceed the equivalent of about 3.4 million packs by 2025, compared with about 55,000 this year, according to calculations based on Bloomberg NEF data.
China, where about half the world’s EVs are sold, is implementing rules in August to make carmakers responsible for expired batteries and to keep them out of landfills. The European Union has regulations, and the industry expects the U.S. to follow.
General Motors Co., BMW AG, Toyota Motor Corp., BYD Co. and a clutch of renewable-energy storage suppliers are among those trying to create an aftermarket and extra profits for a device that only recently coalesced into its own market. Second lives generate second revenue streams for the same product, and those could help lower prices for EVs.
“The car manufacturers have an upcoming problem, and one that we are already starting to see: this massive volume of batteries,” said Johan Stjernberg, chief executive officer of Box of Energy AB, a Swedish company working with Porsche and Volvo Cars. “The market will be enormous for second-life applications with storage.”
________________________
“A lithium-ion battery actually never dies,” said Hans Eric Melin, founder of London-based Circular Energy Storage Research and Consulting. “It’s just like you can take an alkaline battery out of your flashlight and put it into a remote control, and it’ll still be good enough.”
By 2025, about three-quarters of spent EV batteries will be reused and then recycled to harvest raw materials, Melin said. That means automakers and battery producers such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. can profit from the same pack several times.
________________________
Next Stop, Your House?
E-bus batteries will account for the bulk of second-life capacity through 2025
Source: Circular Energy Storage
Note: Other inclues e-bikes, e-scooters, industrial automation, UPS/data centers, telecom
“So far, it’s worked without a hitch,” said Lennart Nord, caretaker of the buildings in Gothenburg.
The technology can cut a household electricity bill by more than a third, said Powervault, which plans to break down Renault Zoe battery packs for use in homes and schools in England this summer. Powervault’s dishwasher-sized units can calculate when it’s most economical to recharge from the grid and when it’s best to tap into stored power.
A Relectrify power pack.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
Jeff Hardy, 44, is putting a Powervault unit in his Victorian terrace house in southeast London, and he expects to save about 110 pounds a year.
“It can basically supplement my solar and allow me to do more for free,” said Hardy, an academic and consultant on the energy sector. “The manufacturing of EV batteries does have an impact on the environment. The fact that this is a reused product means that it’s really reducing that footprint.”
More to read on the link...
.
