Battery second life: Hype, hope or reality? A critical review of the state of the art

Lithium-ion battery elevated upfront cost is considered one of the major barriers hampering the mass market adoption of electric vehicles. In this context, second life use of electric vehicle batteries is one of the solutions explored by the academia and the industry to reduce electric vehicle upfront costs. Per se, the concept of giving a second life to electric vehicle batteries simply consists of reusing the batteries that do not meet any longer the requirements of automotive applications, but which could still be used on less-demanding grid-connected energy storage applications. The present paper reviews the most relevant publications in the field of Lithium-ion battery second life, from economic, technical and environmental perspectives. The main industrial and R&D projects are also described, and the most relevant commercial products available today are briefly reported. The conclusions from the consulted references are critically discussed at the end of each subsection, and, finally, overall conclusions and recommendations are presented.