Second-hand electric car batteries: Refurbished or a ripoff? Expert opinions and consumer concerns

Thierry Lints, take a look at Umicore in Hoboken and see how they do it there. A discarded battery is packed with valuable materials, the best guarantee that it will be fully recycled.

Now it remains to convince the consumer that it is better to buy a cheap, high-risk second-hand EV than an expensive, reliable new one. But that is what our policy people are aiming for; saddling the working class with the surplus of the rich companies, cq CEOs.

@ Marinus van Driel: The capacity of an EV battery gradually decreases over a few years (depending on age and kilometers driven), but stabilizes at around 80%. Tesla models S and X lose an average of only 12% of their capacity after 200,000 km thanks to a good battery management system. This refurbished offer seems to me to be a smart response to the unjustified fear of consumers about loss of capacity of the battery, rather than really necessary…

@ Jos Brems : 100% right Nice article, but little information about how much capacity the battery still has after 5 years. And have it tested, okay, but is such a test relevant or reliable? If you buy a second-hand Tesla, which costs € 60,000 new, for roughly € 25,000 and that turns out to need a new battery of another € 25,000 after two years? What then? Then it would indeed have been better to suddenly buy a new EV. I’m afraid that market will be a flop. And then the ecological damage is disastrous.

A minimum of € 25,000 without seats is quickly € 30,000 in costs on top of the price of a second-hand car. Never buy an electric used car.