Partnership aims to give second life to Nissan LEAF batteries

The agreement will investigate ways of commercialising the process of locating, safely transporting, dismantling, repairing and repurposing EV batteries for second life usage. Nissan could also then offer those second life products to market with an official manufacturer warranty.

The project also supports Nissan’s aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 across its operations and the lifecycle of its products.

In a statement, Alan Low, EV Battery Circular Economy manager at Nissan Energy Services, said: “We are working together with Ecobat to assess how we engage with salvage operators, manage transportation, test, repair and reuse electric vehicle batteries in order to understand the commercial value chain.

“These are batteries from cars that have been dismantled due to old age or that have been written off by insurers, however the batteries themselves still have an opportunity to be reused. They still have a useful life ahead of them, so we need to create a sustainable way of recovering them.

“Nissan takes its obligations seriously and is keen to recover batteries in a good state of health from any LEAF batteries that are no longer required.”

Once located, batteries will be assessed and recovered to Ecobat’s Darlaston base, near Birmingham, using specialist vehicles. Here, further checks will be carried out based on Nissan expertise and processes to determine their long-term safety and performance, allowing Nissan to identify suitable second life applications, including battery energy storage systems and mobile power charging systems. Batteries that cannot be repurposed for a second life will be prepared for recycling.

Tom Seward, EU key accounts director (Northern & UK) at Ecobat Solutions UK Ltd, said: “This is a critical piece of the EV sustainability picture that has real environmental benefits. We even recover any energy stored in the salvaged battery and use it to provide power to the onsite EV charger network at our site.”