Nissan and Ecobat, a battery recycling specialist, have joined forces to explore ways to repurpose old batteries from Nissan Leaf electric vehicles (EVs). The collaboration aims to investigate how EV batteries can be recovered, repaired, recycled, or repurposed, contributing to a more sustainable circular energy economy.
Under the “Strategic Pilot Agreement,” the partners will focus on commercializing the process of locating, safely transporting, dismantling, repairing, and repurposing EV batteries for second-life usage. The first step involves collecting old batteries from UK salvage operators and assessing them at Ecobat’s UK Diagnostic and Disassembly Centre in Darlaston, near Birmingham, using specialist vehicles.
Nissan experts will be involved in determining the batteries’ long-term safety and performance. The goal is to offer the recovered batteries for second-life applications, such as battery energy storage systems for emergency power backup or power balancing, as well as mobile power charging systems. These products will come with an official manufacturer warranty, ensuring their quality and reliability.
Alan Low, EV Battery Circular Economy Manager at Nissan Energy Services, highlighted the importance of creating a sustainable way to recover and reuse old batteries: “They still have a useful life ahead of them, so we need to create a sustainable way of recovering them.”
Tom Seward, EU Key Accounts Director (Northern & UK) at Ecobat Solutions UK Ltd, emphasized their specialist offering for battery handling and their commitment to compliance with UK battery regulations: “This is a critical piece of the EV sustainability picture that has real environmental benefits.”
Ecobat recently signed a similar deal with Volkswagen in the UK, focusing on battery recycling. Ecobat already operates two recycling plants in the UK and Germany, with a third under construction in the US, in Arizona. The partnership between Nissan and Ecobat represents a significant step towards a more sustainable approach to battery reuse and recycling in the EV industry.
