2nd-Life Battery Project Launched By Mitsubishi, PSA Peugeot Citroën, & Others

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Siblings Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation have teamed up with a number of big corporate players to run a demonstration project using old electric car batteries for stationary electricity storage in Europe.

The full list of partners is Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Electricité de France (EDF), PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Forsee Power.

Utilizing lithium-ion batteries previously used in the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Peugeot iOn, Citroën C-Zero electric cars, the initial energy storage demonstration project will be set up at Forsee Power’s new headquarters (near Paris) in September 2015. Note that the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Peugeot iOn, and Citroën C-Zero are almost identical electric cars — built on the same basic platform and using the same batteries.

For now, the companies won’t utilize batteries from the Peugeot Partner EV and Citroën Berlingo Electrique, but I assume the companies are considering the utilization of old batteries from those vehicles as well.

“The purpose of the project is to demonstrate efficient and economically feasible energy management practices based on the optimization of electricity storage, charging and generation technology with respect to existing demand,” Mitsubishi Motors writes. Jointly, the companies are considering a new business venture that would collect and repackage used EV batteries for the European energy storage market… and maybe more beyond that.

Here are a few more details on what the systems will include, via Mitsubishi Motors:

• High voltage (330 volts) Energy Storage System made from Peugeot iOn, Citroen C-Zero and Mitsubishi Motors i-MiEV used automotive battery packs.
• Low voltage (48 Volts) Energy Storage System use of new automotive batteries.
• Bi-directional battery energy consumption optimization (car to building and building to car).