Repurposing. AC Motors President Toti Zara, he said the Ayala division is exploring the possibility of partnering with technology and industrial organizations to repurpose car batteries. (phot by Ira V. Panganiban)

SHENZEN, CHINA – Car batteries of electric vehicles may have an important role to play even when they reach their expiry points as power sources for your cars.

In an exclusive conversation with AC Motors President Toti Zara, he said the Ayala division is exploring the possibility of partnering with technology and industrial organizations to repurpose car batteries.

“We are looking at turning these used EV batteries as storage packages for alternative power sources like solar power panels,” said Zara.

EV manufacturers have been hounded by questions of battery disposal since these are considered as toxic waste.

Zara said these batteries are not entirely useless even after electric cars cannot use them anymore.

“These batteries lose range, not power. From the original 500 kilometers, as the battery age, the range lowers to 300, then 200,” explains Zara.

Zara says the Ayala group is looking for technology partners that can create a system or housing that will allow these used car batteries to be turned into power storage cells for household and industrial use.

“Of course the biggest challenge is not the repurposing or selling these storage cells but the collection of the used batteries,” adds Zara.

He says consumers are not readily willing to go out of their way to bring these used batteries not only because it is inconvenient but also technically difficult.

“We need to extract the batteries from the cars, replace it with new ones and then lift the old batteries to bring them to recycling plants. That is not something a customer willibngly does and it is also an expensive process,” explains Zara.

But with this idea in the pipeline, the fear of dumping more toxic waste into our environment because of the projected boom of electric cars, can at least be mitigated in the short term.