As India accelerates toward its ambitious net-zero targets of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power and rapid EV adoption by 2030, there is a critical thread connecting these seemingly independent goals – What happens to the electric vehicle batteries once they reach the end of their automotive life?
The answer may hold the key not only to the future of clean mobility but also to the broader challenge of sustainable energy storage. As battery retirements begin to scale globally and in India, the answer to this question will have fundamental implications on our ability to achieve both these goals.
From Depletion to Deployment: A Resource Rethink
The traditional narrative around battery degradation views the end of an EV battery’s usable life when it dips below 70–80% of original capacity (SOH or state of health). At this time, the user starts thinking about how to dispose of the battery and recycling is often the default answer given the significant capacity that has been built out in the ecosystem in the recent past. While this is a potential solution, this is however not the right answer.
Recycling revenue on batteries is at best 10% of their original value and has in fact been lower in the recent past given the decreasing lithium prices. At 70% SOH, these batteries are however not obsolete but ripe for reinvention. For various technical reasons, while they can not be used in mobility applications, they can instead be repurposed for less intensive uses, such as stationary energy storage for homes, commercial buildings, or the grid.
India’s EV ecosystem is projected to generate 3-16 GWh of battery replacements annually by 2030. Instead of terming it ‘waste’, we can extract significantly more value by extending their lifecycle. With this battery life extension, we delay landfill entry, reduce the need for virgin raw materials, lower the carbon footprint of new battery production, and also reduce the total cost of ownership of the battery over its lifetime.
Powering the Transition: The Grid Needs a Partner
India’s grid has a complementary problem – grid scale storage demand is projected to skyrocket to 65 GW/260 GWh by 2030. This enormous number is the backbone of our renewable energy ambitions. As solar and wind become the dominant forms of energy, grid intermittency becomes the dominant threat. Static energy storage is the answer and second-life batteries are a great enabler here.
Second-life batteries offer a versatile solution since they can be refurbished to create ESS infrastructure that helps solve grid variability from solar and wind by delivering critical ancillary services such as frequency regulation, peak shaving, and renewable firming—functions essential for maintaining reliability as renewables scale. When deployed for seasonal or behind-the-meter storage, they also strengthen decentralized energy systems, reduce stress on central grids, and enhance rural energy resilience, particularly in sectors like agriculture and microgrids.
So why hasn’t this happened yet?
While there has been ideation across the ecosystem around this use case – progress remains at the pilot stage. To fully realize the promise of second-life batteries at scale, there have to be some key enablers that need to come into place.
Like all complex problems, we need to start by solving fundamental upstream problems. Comprehensive data on the batteries’ first life use needs to be readily available. Batteries are notoriously tough to evaluate and certify at a point in time and besides on-the-ground testing at scale, we need large data models run on historical data to truly be able to assess the health of the incoming batteries. Without this base data, certifying the batteries and the battery packs will not be possible and use of these refurbished battery packs in mission critical ESS infrastructure will not scale. Mobility battery manufacturers also need to design battery packs keeping in mind ease of dis-assembly. Several battery packs today, especially in 2W and 3W use cases are not repairable or easy to disassemble – this needs to be addressed through maturing manufacturing processes and regulation.
Simultaneously, the refurbishment eco-system needs to evolve. Today we have new players in recycling and several players in ESS. However we need more companies that specialise in being able to disassemble, evaluate, refurbish, certify and redeploy second life batteries across form factors whether 2W, 3W, cars or CVs. This is highly complex and requires specialised capabilities if we are to have viable conversion cost, quality and throughput.
Lastly, players or platforms that can consolidate batteries at the end of their first life and offer the players above a predictable and scalable supply of batteries will be critical for scale.
Battery repurposing promises to drive demand for testing, certification, and retrofitting services, opening up space for a new generation of engineers, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem enablers. With over 19 GWh of battery retirements expected by 2040, the supply chain potential is immense.
With the right policy guardrails, such as those being shaped by NITI Aayog and the World Bank, India has the chance to lead not just in battery manufacturing, but in the full-stack lifecycle economy. Thus, the arrow strikes both circularity and sovereignty.
Conclusion: Time to Move from ‘Why’ to ‘How’
The logic for second-life batteries is airtight: ecological prudence, economic benefit, energy resilience. It is all about execution for us as an ecosystem. Just as we embraced the EV movement with foresight and agility, we must now double down on building the infrastructure, policies, and markets for battery second life. But revolutions don’t wait. The countries that lead this shift will own the energy future. India has the policy, the population, the potential. What it needs now is a mindset jolt, to see second-life not as an afterthought, but as an anchor strategy.
