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

(www.thedrive.com)
304 points computerliker | 6 comments | 23 Aug 25 18:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.968s | source | bottom
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robofunk ◴[27 Aug 25 22:09 UTC] No.45045947[source]▶
What's interesting is that if the batteries are being sourced from JDM cars the batteries are probably relatively young due to the average age of Japanese cars being relatively low (8.7 years) and the amount of yearly mileage is also half for JDM cars when compared to the US. So if you tried the same in the US it may not be as viable.
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1. wiredpancake ◴[27 Aug 25 22:11 UTC] No.45045973[source]▶
It's almost like EV batteries don't last long...
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2. stanmancan ◴[27 Aug 25 22:32 UTC] No.45046160[source]▶
Turns out they're lasting much longer than expected: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/12/existing-ev-batter...
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3. wiredpancake ◴[27 Aug 25 23:32 UTC] No.45046574[source]▶
Nope. Why would Toyota even have an abundance of "old" EV batteries to begin with if they "lasted much longer than expected".

I have a Toyota Landcruiser from 1990.

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4. Tade0 ◴[27 Aug 25 23:46 UTC] No.45046679{3}[source]▶
Which most likely wouldn't pass Japanese vehicle inspection performed, IIRC, every two years. Also this means that it was never totalled.

Plenty of cars suffer the latter and with safety systems as they are now, it's more likely than in the past.

5. ezfe ◴[28 Aug 25 01:17 UTC] No.45047219{3}[source]▶
Toyota sourced these from many places, not just their own vehicles...
6. 542354234235 ◴[28 Aug 25 12:32 UTC] No.45051366{3}[source]▶
Cars get scrapped for many reasons and might not have anything to do with the battery pack. I don't know if you have ever heard of junkyards, but people have been going to them for years to get perfectly good parts from junked or totaled cars. The average age of Japanese vehicles is only 9 years old. Most people don't drive cars to 150,000 miles and beyond. If Toyota is using the batteries from older cars, that by definition means they were still useful batteries on those cars.

I really don't know what to say about your 1990 vehicle comment. Good for you? Just because some people own a classic car doesn't change the fact that more than 99% of classic cars are scrap metal now.