Ehime Prefecture advances closed loop EV battery recycling model

MobiSavi is entering into a partnership with Ehime Nissan Motor and engineering consultant L-B.Engineering Japan to construct Japan’s first car dealer-led electric vehicle (EV) battery collection and reuse hub in Ehime Prefecture.

As electric vehicle adoption slowly expands across Japan, regional communities face logistical costs when shipping spent batteries out of prefecture for health testing and processing.

To resolve this bottleneck, Ehime Nissan will operate a new collection and evaluation hub. The facility will use safety standards under the LBEJ Certification standard developed by L-B.Engineering Japan, and handle multi-brand vehicles, diagnosing battery degradation and establishing standardised performance evaluation methods. Trial operations will commence in October. The partners look to full commercial operation in 2028 to create a stable local supply of repurposed energy storage units.

Concurrently, MobiSavi and L-B.Engineering Japan will lead an initiative focused on promoting secondary market entry for approximately 10 regional enterprises in Ehime Prefecture. The project will deliver technical training covering battery structures, degradation characteristics, and safety engineering.

L-B.Engineering Japan will also install emergency solar streetlights fitted with repurposed EV backup batteries at public facilities across the prefecture, offering local engineers hands-on experience with secondary battery product development.