X marks the spot for £30k electro-camper

SKODA is addressing the concern surrounding ‘end of life’ battery packs by building second life storage and power hubs for retailers. More than 160 ŠKODA retailers in mainland Europe are now set to be powered partially by old electric car batteries.

The SKODA system stores sustainably generated electricity in up to 20 used 13kWh batteries from plug-in hybrid models or five 82 kWh batteries from the Enyaq. The system has a total capacity of up to 328 kWh, which can be used to supply on-site fast-charging stations with a transmission power of up to 150 kW. The energy storage system can also store any surplus green electricity generated by dealers’ photovoltaic systems, for example.

This electricity can then be used at any time with full transmission power, regardless of the weather or the current load on the local power grid. In addition, the dealers can draw on the electricity generated in-house to light their showroom or workshop or to run the air conditioning.

This allows electric vehicles, for example, to be charged quickly and flexibly, and dealers can also use the stored electricity for the lighting and air-conditioning in their showrooms and workshops.

Re-used Enyaq and iV hybrid model battery packs will become high-speed chargers and also power retailers

At the heart of the energy storage system are batteries that were previously installed in the Enyaq or the plug-in hybrid models. For the first units of the new storage system, batteries from test and pre-production vehicles will be used; later, cells from used production vehicles can also be put through a second life cycle in this way. Experience from the pilot project shows that the capacity of the batteries in the stationary storage systems only drops by around two per cent a year.

ŠKODA claims that the system extends the useful life of the batteries to up to 15 years, significantly improving their carbon footprint. At the end of this second life cycle, ŠKODA recycles the cells in a controlled process. The recovered raw materials are then used to produce new batteries.

The question of what to do with old battery packs has raised valid concerns from environmental campaigners who have highlighted that the carbon footprint (the amount of CO2 emitted in the production process) is still very high for battery production. By extending their use by another 15 years, the ‘CO2 per mile’ impact is significantly reduced.