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

Neat idea to mix batteries of different age and chemistries. I've wondered why EVs couldn't do that too with some power electronics and SW. If an EV battery could have multiple such modules, it'd:

1) Make it easier to carry a cheaper lighter less-natural-resources-consuming battery most of the time. Go to some "gas station" to rent and add more modules when taking a road trip

2) Make it cheaper to replace the 1 module used a lot at its EOL, thereby making EVs last longer and be viable as cheap used cars even past 10 years like ICE cars are

3) Allow easier upgrades as chemistry improves: solid-state, sodium ion, etc.

Modules could be electrically tested for fit. I'd think the fit range would be quite wide (e.g. if one supported lower max discharge rates than another) given the headroom we have with EVs' power these days: they have far-more-than-needed power (which mostly comes for free with EV range).

The tradeoff is that they'd need to be built to be modular with some standardization on module dimensions (maybe we'll have "ZZ" size like we have AA, C, etc today), and would take a tad more volume in the vehicle (though the limiting factor is weight rather than volume). Easily worthwhile over the current model with a huge monolithic pack.

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

#5

Post by skhameneh » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

This seems very bizarre given Mazda is probably the least (of all "major" manufacturers) focused on EV and electric initiatives.

Mazda only had one EV, the MX-30 EV. Less than 600 of the MX-30 EV were sold in the US during its production. It was a complete flop right out of production. Mazda leadership has been notorious for pushing rotary engines and shifting further away from EV initiatives.

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

#6

Post by momoschili » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

skhameneh wrote: post #5

This seems very bizarre given Mazda is probably the least (of all "major" manufacturers) focused on EV and electric initiatives. Mazda only had one EV, the MX-30 EV. Less than 600 of the MX-30 EV were sold in the US during its production. It was a complete flop right out of production. Mazda leadership has been notorious for pushing rotary engines and shifting further away from EV initiatives.

Did you even read the article? It has nothing to do with producing EVs, they are using the old EV batteries to help power manufacturing facilities.

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

#7

Post by momoschili » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

zhyder wrote: post #4

Neat idea to mix batteries of different age and chemistries. I've wondered why EVs couldn't do that too with some power electronics and SW. If an EV battery could have multiple such modules, it'd: 1) Make it easier to carry a cheaper lighter less-natural-resources-consuming battery most of the time. Go to some "gas station" to rent and add more modules when taking a road trip 2) Make it cheaper to replace the 1 modul…

I have to imagine that even accounting for the variance in internal resistance over a large set of batteries in a demanding application like a car is probably a host of problems makes this unattractive from the outset.

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

#8

Post by Loudergood » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

momoschili wrote: post #6

skhameneh wrote: post #5

This seems very bizarre given Mazda is probably the least (of all "major" manufacturers) focused on EV and electric initiatives. Mazda only had one EV, the MX-30 EV. Less than 600 of the MX-30 EV were sold in the US during its production. It was a complete flop right out of production. Mazda leadership has been notorious for pushing rotary engines and shifting further away from EV initiatives.

Did you even read the article? It has nothing to do with producing EVs, they are using the old EV batteries to help power manufacturing facilities.

This is very bizarre because that's exactly what GP was pointing out.

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

#9

Post by wallaBBB » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 5:59 PM UTC

skhameneh wrote: post #5

This seems very bizarre given Mazda is probably the least (of all "major" manufacturers) focused on EV and electric initiatives. Mazda only had one EV, the MX-30 EV. Less than 600 of the MX-30 EV were sold in the US during its production. It was a complete flop right out of production. Mazda leadership has been notorious for pushing rotary engines and shifting further away from EV initiatives.

it's unrelated to the manufacturing of EVs. If any factory reaches a significant energy generation (usually this means from solar) it makes sense to look into a battery solution. It just happens to be Mazda's manufacturing plant.

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

#10

Post by themaninthedark » Wed, Aug 27, 2025, 6:01 PM UTC

throwawaymaths wrote: post #3

bluGill wrote: post #2

had to check: toyota owns 5% of mazda which makes them the largest shareholder.

TIL as well

IIRC; Toyota started investing in Mazda to gain access to their engine technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyactiv

https://thedetroitbureau.com/2019/07/toyota-teaming-up-with-...