The electric car revolution requires large amounts of new batteries. But at some point, the batteries need to be replaced. The entrepreneurial company RePack has developed a solution that allows a third of the electric car batteries to be reused elsewhere.

Energy storage will be very important in the green shift. According to a study from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, installed capacity will grow 170 times over the next 20 years, not least due to the increasing roll-out of electric cars. The electric car batteries will eventually not be able to serve their original purpose and hence be discarded. McKinsey has estimated that over the next ten years, the proportion of discarded electric car batteries will increase 200 times. That is an equivalent of approx. 3 million batteries a year. Even if this is a known fact, existing battery systems rely on outdated battery operating and controlling systems. Battery management systems (BMSs) are pre-configured at the factory for operating the battery for the entirety of its lifetime without taking into account degradation and usage patterns. This leads to a large number of batteries being discarded years ahead of time.

RePack has found that around a third of these batteries are functional and can be used elsewhere. Second-life batteries can live on for more than 10 years if selected, configured and operated correctly. The company has therefore developed a battery cloud, where they collect information from the batteries' first life, from the repackaging and from the second life (number of kilometers driven, why they were discarded, how they performed, etc.). Based on this information and using the battery cloud, they find out how the batteries can be packed together and enter a system within another area of use. This is the reason why RePack started building a solution that enables a data-driven approach to repurposing.This solution is called the Battery Cloud, and its key functionalities are: Live and historical battery system data; Over the air updates that bring safety and performance improvements based on learning from all of RePack battery systems; Customizable notifications; APIs for integration with third-party applications.

The company mission is to enable maximum value generation from second-life EV batteries by repurposing them in a streamlined, safe and cost-effective way. Using second-life EV batteries, RePack estimates its battery systems to have an up to 95% lower carbon footprint compared to systems based on new battery cells. They develop novel technologies for reassembly and operations to convert usable second life EV batteries into modular plug-and-play battery storage systems. To customers, the Battery Cloud brings the ability to follow their battery system data in real-time as well as peace of mind that their battery system is safely monitored and updated. To RePack, the Battery Cloud is a key tool to further extend the understanding of how second-life batteries perform and how to maximize their value to customers.