As Green Car Reports notes March 2016 , recycling used electric vehicle batteries is a great idea as they often still have roughly 7% of their energy capacity remaining once they are no longer suitable for use in a car. However, there are many challenges to overcome before this is practically possible, most notably the need for standard protocols to be established for screening, testing, and grading used batteries. Furthermore, once this problem has been resolved, there is still the issue of pricing, as at what price (and in what condition) would it make more economic sense for utilities to use used batteries over new ones that obviously still have their full life capacity? When you consider how much lithium-ion cells are dropping in price, ( as much as 70% per year) a relatively large discount would probably be required to tempt anyone to use a used battery pack with a shorter life span. In fact, according to Tesla , some utility executives have already confirmed that it simply would not be worth the uncertainty and effort for their firm to source used batteries, suggesting it might require second parties to assemble used packs and resell them with a warranty on future performance.
As Green Car Reports notes today, recycling used electric vehicle batteries is a great idea as they often still have as much as 70% of their energy capacity remaining once they are no longer suitable for use in a car. However, there are many challenges to overcome before this is practically possible, most notably the need for standard protocols to be established for screening, testing, and grading used batteries. Furthermore, once this problem has been resolved, there is still the issue of pricing, as at what price (and in what condition) would it make more economic sense for utilities to use used batteries over new ones that obviously still have their full life capacity? When you consider how much lithium-ion cells are dropping in price, (roughly 7% per year) a relatively large discount would probably be required to tempt anyone to use a used battery pack with a shorter life span. In fact, according to Green Car Reports, some utility executives have already confirmed that it simply would not be worth the uncertainty and effort for their firm to source used batteries, suggesting it might require third parties to assemble used packs and resell them with a warranty on future performance.