Totus Power · July 2017

The economic unviability of reusing old electric vehicle batteries — An analysis

An analysis by Siva R. Original published date: July 2017

Summary

Since 2013, My team and I at Totus Power (now retired) worked on reusing old Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries in developing countries for portable power storage applications. We concluded that performance ambiguities and multiple regulatory and supply chain restrictions make it commercially unviable to do so. We have used the data collected over the years to provide an analysis of the underlying factors (below).

Founder's Note: Our conclusions are defined by our own perspective and work.

Analysis

We were unsuccessful in building a commercially viable model to reuse old EV batteries in developing countries (on a large scale) for the following reasons:

1. Lack of performance guarantees

   Used EV batteries are past the optimum performance window for which they were originally designed. They are at best between 40% to 70% State of Health (SOH). While we analyzed and validated the energy capacity of these batteries, we lack concrete data to guarantee any of the other critical performance characteristics (particularly cycle life) needed to compete with ever cheaper, new Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. As a result it was difficult to get customer buy-in, outside of small pilot implementations.

2. End of Life recycling (EOL)

   Although this is not yet required by US law, it is rightly mandated by automakers. This adds 41% (or ≈$50/kWh) to the cost (as quoted by our recycling partner). Additionally, facilities capable of recycling automotive grade Li-Ion batteries are located in the US, Canada and Europe, i.e. close to existing EV markets.

3. Logistics

   Shipping adds another 20% to the cost, not taking into account Class 9 hazardous material (HAZMAT) packaging, labelling and other handling requirements, and restrictions around shipping via air. There is also ambiguity on potential classification as waste, and as a result is near impossible to economically ship to a developing country and back for appropriate disposal.

4. Nonstandard architectures

   EV automakers such as Nissan, BMW, Tesla etc., have a wide variability in terms of module architecture. It is prohibitively expensive to develop a standard Battery Management System (BMS) with the sophistication and flexibility required to work seamlessly across all the different used EV battery models. The work arounds for this are a) dismantle the modules to reach the individual cells and reassemble the good cells into a standard configuration, b) EV automakers redesign future EV modules factoring in second life reuse, to minimize the redevelopment of critical control electronics. We decided against the former since most EV modules are challenging to disassemble. The latter approach is in the early pilot stages (E.g. BMW). Even if these standards were to be widely adopted, it will be another 7-10 years before these reach the second-life market.

In conclusion

We sourced used EV batteries (@module level) for ≈$40/kWh. However when all of the above is factored in, Jupiter6 would at the very least cost $300/kWh, with little scope for achieving economies of scale. Therefore, second life EV batteries are at best only a 10% to15% cost saving over new Li-Ion batteries. For our potential customers, this cost saving did not warrant taking on the additional liabilities/unknowns that came with second-life EV batteries.

We therefore have retired the idea and published our results in hope that they will be useful for others in the field. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me personally via Linkedin.

News Coverage

• BBC (Horizons)
• Forbes
• Washington Post
• WXYZ (Detroit)

Note: I gave up the Totus Power domain in 2017. The current website is not connected with me personally or our work in general.