Kia Australia and Infinitev – a company that works to reuse, repurpose or recycle end-of-life hybrid and electric vehicle batteries – have announced a partnership that aims to develop sustainable and scalable solutions for EV battery management.
“We are currently in the very early stages of developing a solution tailored to Kia customers that will allow their electric vehicle batteries to be refurbished instead of discarded,” said Damien Meredith, Chief Executive Officer at Kia Australia. “What happens to an electric vehicle battery at the end of its life is an important consideration when it comes to EV buyers, so this is a very significant program.”
Infinitev says it has developed a suite of battery lifecycle management solutions. When a traction battery experiences diminished functionality, the company initiates a SafetyCheck – an examination encompassing both physical and electrochemical safety assessments of EV batteries.
Following the SafetyCheck, engineers use proprietary HealthCheck diagnostic tools to evaluate the performance of the battery pack and its individual modules. This assessment allows for the modules to be placed into one of three categories:
• A-grade modules are reused to build batteries for EV traction
• B-grade modules are repurposed for battery energy storage systems
• C-grade modules are recycled by Infinitev’s partners to recover valuable materials.
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (November 2023)
