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Toyota is recycling old EV batteries to help power Mazda's production line

(www.thedrive.com)
304 points computerliker | 1 comments | 23 Aug 25 18:29 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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pornel ◴[27 Aug 25 18:50 UTC] No.45043480[source]▶
Those who TL;DRd - it's for the factory, not the cars!

Old EV batteries are great for energy storage. A worse weight-to-capacity ratio doesn't matter for batteries sitting on the ground. A battery that holds only 70% of its original capacity is considered worn-out for EVs (and even replaced under warranty), but grid storage isn't driving anywhere, so any capacity left is still useful.

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slt2021 ◴[27 Aug 25 19:18 UTC] No.45043824[source]▶
this is like picking up unfinished cigarette butts and making few finals puffs before burning your mouth.

worn-out batteries can swell and fail spectacularly, with fireworks

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1. Cthulhu_ ◴[27 Aug 25 21:14 UTC] No.45045364[source]▶
Except that the cigarrette is only 30% smoked and still perfectly fine to smoke for a while longer (if you insist on an analogy).

Car battery packs are really good; even the oldest Teslas are only now getting to less than 80% capacity. They are designed not to swell/fail if they're worn, else there would be a lot more car fires.