Automotive engineers Davide Giacobbe and Niccolò Ferrari have worked on Lamborghinis and race cars for years, surrounded by cutting edge tech that's part of the sleek and fast cars.
These days, they are working in what the electric vehicle industry might consider a retirement business. Their startup — Raleigh, North Carolina-based ScoutIt — brokers deals for spent EV batteries. The goal is to find a suitable place for the power packs to fulfill their life spans (with dignity, of course).
"This second-life battery market needs to be pushed, and we are creating a solution to facilitate this market and to enable electric vehicle batteries' circular economy," Giacobbe said in an article by GrepBeat.
The concept is simple enough. ScoutIt works with vehicle manufacturers and others who have aged batteries, providing them with a profitable way to move the packs. The ScoutIt team then finds buyers who can use the batteries for energy storage or other projects, according to the company.
Surprisingly, EV batteries still hold 80% of their value after powering a vehicle, mostly because of all the expensive components inside of them, per GrepBeat.
What's more, the power packs can charge up to 85% of their original capacity, even though they can't reliably power an EV anymore. That's why projects that store renewable energy in old batteries are being developed.
In the United Kingdom, an effort is underway to power old diesel trucks with nearly-dead EV batteries. The trucks deliver the packs to a recycling facility while emptying their capacity.
"The value proposition for [battery buyers] is that they can find more affordable battery supply," Giacobbe told GrepBeat. "They can also reduce carbon footprint compared to solutions based on new batteries, since there is no new manufacturing involved."
The engineers started this project in 2022. They told GrepBeat that their international auto experience should help them to break into foreign markets. As battery brokers, they claim to be able to help sellers make up to $2,000 a pack, instead of spending $1,500 each for disposal.
Worldwide, the EV battery recycling market is forecast to reach $38.7 billion by 2032, according to Spherical Insights & Consulting.
For its part, ScoutIt's website states that it is more than a broker, helping clients from "market research to project deployment." If successful, the company could become an important player as we search for better ways to reuse some of our old stuff.
"I believe that EVs can completely eliminate carbon footprint if we have the right solution, both on the renewable power generation and on recycling and repurposing technologies," Giacobbe said in the GrepBeat story.
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