Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, Industrial - June 27, 2018
Hyundai turns EV batteries into energy storage
Hyundai announced a deal to use electric vehicle battery packs for energy storage applications. The company is currently piloting a 1 MWh energy storage system using Hyundai IONIQ Electric’s and Kia Soul EV’s second-life battery packs.
According to a report in Electrek, the Korean automaker will work with technology company Wärtsilä on "a technology and commercial partnership designed to utilize second-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries for the growing energy storage market."
"Energy storage is the logical next step in the after-market use of EV batteries," explained Dr. Youngcho Chi, executive vice president of strategy & technology division and chief innovation officer of Hyundai Motor Group (HMG). "By repurposing resource-intensive products like EV batteries, we eliminate disposal costs and extend the value of the R&D investment that goes into manufacturing the technology. HMG is strengthening its leadership in clean technology and sustainability by participating in the new energy business."
Electrek’s report noted, "It’s interesting that almost every automaker working on electric vehicles other than Tesla are reusing the packs instead of recycling them for the materials." Among the examples cited were Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Renault, and Nissan. "On the other hand, Tesla says that it prefers building battery packs especially for stationary energy storage and it has other plans for old vehicle battery packs."
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