Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Corporation recently announced an initiative based on the 4R’s – to reuse, resell, refabricate and recycle lithium-ion batteries from electric cars for use as energy-storage solutions elsewhere.
While there is no existing supply of such batteries, by 2020 in Japan, the demand for electric car battery packs is expected to reach the equivalent of at least 50,000 vehicles per year.
Even after the end of normal vehicle life, the high-performance lithium-ion batteries used by Nissan will still have 70 to 80 percent of residual capacity and could be used as energy storage systems for off grid solar power applications. Lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles store massive amounts of energy and are far lighter and smaller than their traditional deep cycle battery counterparts.
The scheme will also help reduce the cost of electric car ownership as electric car battery packs are currently very expensive. According to Hideaki Watanabe, head of Nissan’s Zero Emission Business Unit, “Nissan is exploring several options including battery lease or credit model based on a monthly payment scheme. With this proposition, the total running cost, which equals the monthly battery payment plus the cost to charge the battery, is comparable to the cost to refuel a similar gasoline-powered car.”
Additionally, the program will help Nissan reduce the environmental impact of its electric car production.
The two companies will firstly undertake a joint feasibility study, with view to the program being operational by late 2010; initially in Japan and the United States.
While these recycled batteries will only be able to address a small portion of the off grid solar market, recent major investments in electric car battery technology may see lithium-ion batteries developed specifically for the renewable energy market soon.
