Volvo Group reuses batteries for electric trucks and buses

Volvo will give heavy electric machinery batteries a second life in energy storage systems in collaboration with Connected Energy. The British company specializes in using finished car batteries, and the Volvo Group set its sights on it last year.

Volvo Group was among the investors in June 2022 when Connected Energy raised £15m, including £4m from Volvo. The Volvo Group should not be confused with Volvo Cars, which is owned by Geely and remains in the hands of the Swedes to manufacture heavy vehicles. The group joined new connected investors such as Caterpillar or energy company Mercuria last year.

Today’s new deal between Connected and Volvo Energy will begin this year as Volvo wants to launch battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Europe by early 2025.

The partners will recover batteries from Volvo electric buses, trucks and machines and create a second life at Connected Energy facilities.

While the company will develop a system specifically for Volvo, Connected Energy has rolled out its existing E-Stor technology with partners such as Swarco in the UK or Renault in France. It also counts Engie among its investors.

Among the latest projects is a large-scale vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot in Nottingham, where reused batteries connect to solar arrays and charge electric vehicles again.

Volvo Energy also recently installed Connected Energy’s existing E-Stor technology at its facility in Gothenburg, Sweden to test and review its response rate to the Swedish grid.

“The drive behind the Volvo Group is to ensure that every battery that powers our cars is used to its full potential before being recycled,” says Elisabeth Larsson, Senior Vice President Sales and Service at Volvo Energy. She said the deep collaboration will be “a major milestone in our mission to move from a linear to a circular business model by optimizing the full life cycle of batteries while creating a product that enables the transition to a world powered by renewable energy.” .

Matthew Lumsden, CEO of Connected Energy, described the collaboration as “an exciting next step in our existing relationship with Volvo Energy with the potential to enable us to transfer our technology at scale to the European market.”

The partners did not mention target quantities or capacity but expect that “battery volumes coming from first-life applications will increase significantly” over the next few years.

The Volvo Group reportedly delivered 1,442 electric trucks in the first half of 2023, up from 409 in the same period last year (+235%). This includes commercial vehicles from the group’s Renault and Mack Trucks brands.

Connect-Energy.co.uk