Market and product
Nissan looks to wind to recycle old batteries
Old batteries from electric cars will soon be recycled by wind farm developers to be used as a low budget form of energy storage. According to reports, Nissan will be looking into saving old batteries from their electric line and recycling them out to wind farmers.
The automaker, last October, launched a new initiative aimed to investigate the viability of this option. The 4R initiative will partner with Sumitomo Corporation to lay out a strategy for the resell, reuse, and recycling of old batteries. At the moment, the company is looking to recycle old batteries somewhere within the renewables sector.
Electric car batteries deteriorate as time wears on and they must be replaced. Nissan, however, anticipates that their new lithium-ion cells being placed into newer models of their electric vehicles will be able to retain up to 80 per cent of their functioning capacity after they are retired from the vehicles.
A spokesperson at Nissan said that the company was seriously investigating the option and would soon look at a proposed business model that involves only leasing the battery to buyers of their newest Nissan Leaf electric car. The battery-lease scheme would mean that at the end of the battery life for the vehicle, vehicle owners would be required to return it to Nissan. Nissan would then recycle, reuse, or resell the battery for other uses.
Nissan is not the only firm to consider this option. UK-based Liberty Electric Cars, which is gearing up to release the first all-electric Range Rover, is also in discussions with offshore wind generators. The UK startup has spoken to EDF Energy, Eon, and Scottish Power about potential reuse of old electric car batteries.
