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The battery pack of a Nissan Leaf such as this one can have a second-life application like at Nissan’s European headquarters which features a system composed of 12 second-life Nissan Leaf batteries. Gereon Meyer/Wikimedia Commons

The Second-Life of Used EV Batteries

May 27, 2020 3:42 PM EDT

When an electric vehicle (EV) comes off the road, what happens to the vehicle battery? The fate of the lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles is an important question for manufacturers, policy makers, and EV owners alike. The economic potential for battery reuse, or second-life, could help to further decrease the upfront costs of EV batteries and increase the value of a used EV. Given the growing market for EVs, second-life batteries could also represent a market of low-cost storage for utilities and electricity consumers. But in order to enable widespread reuse of EV batteries, policy will play an important role in reducing barriers and ensuring responsible, equitable, and sustainable practices. Read more >

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battery pack in an electric vehicle
Hanjiro Ambrose/UCS

A Quick Guide to Battery Reuse and Recycling

February 28, 2020 2:06 PM EDT

From scooters to motorcycles, sportscars, school buses, trucks, trains, and even planes, it seems we are entering the era of electrified mobility.  This has been due in large part to the rapidly falling costs and improving performance of lithium-ion batteries. Better batteries are enabling an increasingly wide array of electric personal, light, and heavy-duty vehicle technologies. The growth in deployments of lithium batteries will inevitably create a large flow of retired or used batteries.  By 2030, analysts predict that retirements could exceed half a million vehicles annually or over 2 million metric tonnes of batteries per year. Read more >

Hanjiro Ambrose/UCS
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Photo: Roy Luck/CC BY 2.0 (Flickr)

Breaking Up (with Stuff) is Hard to Do: Are We Biologically Predisposed to Collect Stuff?

Mary Poffenroth, , UCS

December 2, 2016 3:14 PM EDT

Have you ever wondered why we enjoy stuff so much? We definitely enjoy buying it. Depending on what it is, we also enjoy talking about it. We research it, we browse for it, and we feel triumphant when we find that perfect something. But why? Read more >

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