In 2020, the number of electric vehicles worldwide reached 10 million and it is expected that the demand for batteries from the mobility sector will reach 1,525 GWh annually by 2030. In this growing context, manufacturers are faced with the challenge that they must take back the used batteries; thus, becoming responsible for their after-life management. The current average usage of batteries in electric vehicles is about 10 years or 150.000 km and around 70-80% of used Li-ion batteries are still usable and in good health after the first use. However, since Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have no way of predicting capacity and remaining charge cycles, the residual value of batteries is very low, or even negative, as OEMs must pay industrial waste management companies to dispose the used batteries. With the expected growth in electric vehicles, soon, battery disposable will be an important expense for OEMs.
TWAICE provides a simple and automated method to re-pack and re-use batteries after first use and give resale value to today’s industrial waste, solving the major cost and safety problems posed by batteries. We have developed an analytic software which calculates the remaining capacity, state of health, and remaining charging cycles of the battery down to the individual modules, making it possible to predict the remaining lifetime of a used battery. Modules at the same health status and with the same expected remaining life-time are combined and re-packed into a new battery. The re-packed batteries are directed to the application better matching its remaining performance. By using our digital twin technology, battery health calculations and tests can be performed up to four times faster. During the battery’s 2nd life, the digital twin is constantly monitored. Based on the collected data, the usage of the batteries is constantly adapted to their state of health and remaining life-time. As calculations are made on a module-by-module basis, only modules that are no longer usable are disposed of. This eliminates the superfluous waste of resources by nearly 99 %.
TWAICE ecosystem for batteries lifetime management and second life upcycling will allow to at least double the effective use of a battery and reduce the environmental impact of the upcoming massive vehicles electrification, offering the first solution that can enable a circular economy model in the battery life management. This will allow waste batteries to have commercial resale value for second life application. OEMs will benefit from a solution that reduces the overall greenhouse gas emissions while providing an additional source of revenue.
