Why it matters

The battery reuse decision is coming, at scale.

Electric vehicles now sell by the tens of millions a year. Each of their batteries will need a decision at the end of its first life, and the right decision depends on how healthy it is.

01 · Volumes

End-of-life batteries grow fortyfold in twenty years.

More than 17 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2024, over 20% of all car sales, and the share is set to exceed 40% in 2030 under today's policy settings[1]. From about 2035, end-of-life EV and storage batteries become the largest source of material for recycling[3].

EV batteries reaching end of life per year, worldwide

Batteries from light- and heavy-duty battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles

[2] ICCT, 2023

02 · Pathways

Three routes after the first life. The test decides which.

End of first life

Vehicle, machine or storage system retired

Health assessment

State of health, resistance, abnormalities, confidence

Reuse

Same kind of application, after inspection or repair

Repurpose for second life

For example stationary energy storage

Recycle

Recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper

18 Feb 2027

Battery passport required for EV, light-transport and industrial batteries above 2 kWh, including state-of-health information[5]

65% → 70%

Required recycling efficiency for lithium-based batteries, end 2025 and end 2030[4]

50% → 80%

Required lithium recovery from waste batteries, end 2027 and end 2031[4]

EU rules under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries.

03 · Health decides the route

Whether reuse pays depends on the battery's health.

A 2026 study of second-life and recycling economics finds that the more economical route differs by chemistry, and that NMC batteries can be sorted into either route by state of health and intended application[6].

Chemistry	More economical route
LFP	Repurposing
NCA	Recycling
NMC	Depends on state of health and the second-life application

[6] Cobb et al., Applied Energy, 2026

04 · Testing is the bottleneck

Conventional health tests are slow, and their cost shapes the business case.

~20 h

of cycling tests per unit, pack or module, before repurposing[6]

$41/kWh

estimated cost to repurpose at module level in the study’s case[6]

$12/kWh

for the same pack repurposed whole, where fewer units are tested[6]

Fast screens such as pulse or resistance tests exist, but they are sensitive to temperature, charge level and procedure, so they are trusted only as a first pass.

05 · Second life needs a forecast

A storage buyer needs to know how long a battery will last.

Predicting the expected life of used batteries in second-use applications is still an open challenge, together with warranty and chain-of-ownership questions[7]. A health snapshot alone does not answer it.

In developmentHow Dynovy approaches prediction

What a second-life buyer asks

01How healthy is the unit today, and how sure are you?
02How will it age in my application and load profile?
03When will it reach the end-of-life threshold we agree on?

06 · Market and economics

A large value pool, if health can be proven.

200 GWh+

per year of second-life battery supply for stationary storage by 2030 (2019 projection)[8]

12–57%

lower levelised cost of electricity with second-life instead of new batteries, across 41 US scenarios[9]

USD 200 bn

market value of recycled energy-transition minerals by 2050, five times today[3]

Public sources give few reliable per-kWh revenue comparisons between reuse and recycling, so this page shows peer-reviewed cost findings rather than a single profit figure.

07 · Sustainability

Reuse first, recycle when it is time.

Extending a battery's service life avoids the emissions and materials of a new one; recycling then recovers the materials at the end. Knowing each battery's health is what makes that order possible.

61–106 kg

CO₂e to produce each kWh of new lithium-ion battery capacity[10]

7–31%

lower emissions for second-life batteries than for new ones in stationary use[9]

80%

less greenhouse gas for recycled nickel, cobalt and lithium than for mined material[3]

25–40%

less new mine development needed by 2050 thanks to recycling, depending on the metal[3]

Prioritising reuse saves more CO₂ than recycling alone

Cumulative savings to 2050, California case study

[11] Wesselkämper et al., 2025

Make every battery's next life the right one.

Tell us about your cells or modules and the decision you need to make. We will reply with how a validation project could work for you.

Discuss a validation project