Abstract for:Is there Life after Life? The Future of Electric Vehicle Batteries in South Africa

Once electric vehicles reach their end-of-life, the batteries appear to have sufficient capacity for reuse or repurposing (second-life), thus postponing the recycling phase. The second-life could generate revenue through various applications e.g. renewable energy storage. This study investigated the potential reuse of the electric vehicle batteries and the implications for South Africa, based on the forecasted electric vehicle (EV) market penetration per province. The results showed that there may be 164,150 electric car batteries available for second applications by 2040, providing approximately 27.6 Gigawatt hours. There is also the potential of 28.5 GWh to be obtained from 19,003 electric bus batteries forecasted by 2040. With the expected growth in renewable energy generating capacity forecasted in the South African Draft Integrated Resource Plan by the Department of Energy, there is certainly “Life after life” for EV batteries to be used for second-life energy storage applications.