Audi powers EV charging station with recycled e-tron batteries

Audi finds use for their used lithium ion batteries

Battery disposal is one of the growing causes for concern as manufacturers go full swing towards electrification. As we all know, EV batteries don't get burned off, unlike fossil fuels, making it a challenge for manufacturers to repurpose once the batteries lose their peak charging and energy deployment characteristics.

Over in Germany though, Audi may have found something that could not only recycle used batteries but also help EV charging facilities grow in numbers.

Audi has put up its latest high-power charging hub in Munich that offers up to 320 kW of power in its four charging points.

Normally, charging stations that have this high energy deployment capacity would place a large strain on the power grid where it is located. But what Audi did was to put in buffer batteries called “Power Cubes”, which consist of used lithium-ion batteries taken from Audi's former research vehicles, or those e-tron prototype models that were made before they went into production.

Audi says because of this solution, they have achieved an energy capacity of 1.05 megawatt hours – which could be enough to charge up to 60 vehicles before charging power starts to decrease.

Of course, it would take a while before other manufacturers and EV charging operators start to adopt Audi's idea, as intricate processes would be needed in these kinds of things. But the good part here is that by giving old batteries a second life as buffers for charging stations, countries that struggle to produce the required energy in adopting EV infrastructures (like us) could largely benefit from this innovation.