PROFACTOR: A Second Life for Batteries

One of the major obstacles in introducing electric vehicles on the mass market is the high cost of purchasing lithium-ion batteries. A consortium led by Profactor GmbH in Steyr is therefore conducting research into a second life for batteries in the project “BatteryLife”.

Old traction batteries no longer meet all the high power and energy density requirements. In this situation, giving them a second life is a possible way of reducing the cost of buying an electric vehicle and extending the useful life of batteries.

Think in the Loop

Second-life applications for used batteries such as installing them in domestic storage units for photovoltaic systems or integrating them in intelligent charging points as backup batteries are feasible, and would make additional revenue possible, improve the carbon footprint and lower the price of electric cars. To this end, the project consortium is compiling a complete life-cycle analysis, from the production of the batteries to their disassembly, from meters to the status of the individual components and possible areas of application. The ultimate objective is a comprehensive concept for the ecologically and economically viable reuse of batteries.

Apart from Profactor, the project also involves MIBA Electric GmbH, Daxner&Merl business consultants, the AIT Center for Electric Vehicle Technologies and Keysight Technologies.

More information on the project is available on the PROFACTOR website.