Second Life of Electric Vehicle (EV) Batteries for Energy Resilience in Western Sweden: Enablers, Barriers and Viability

Sammanfattning

The shift to electric mobility is creating a growing number of lithium-ion batteries that still have useful capacity after their automotive life ends. At the same time, Western Sweden needs to strengthen its energy resilience due to increasing grid pressure, extreme weather conditions, and geopolitical uncertainty. Repurposing retired EV batteries as stationary storage could address these challenges at once. However, the circular economy and energy resilience literature have mostly developed separately. Because of this there is still little direction on what must be done to make it possible for second-life battery systems to be effective for resilience-oriented applications. This study develops an integrated conceptual model that combines four dimensions of energy resilience with the circular economy (9R framework), circular supply chain, and stakeholder theory. The model is applied through seven semi-structured interviews with actors across the battery and energy chain and complimented by document analysis. The findings show that second life systems can be technically reliable and operationally functional once they are deployed. But the upstream chain is still underdeveloped, and governance and responsibilities are distributed across multiple actors of the chain. And also, systems are not yet economically attractive at the customer level under current market situations. The alignment of strategic, operational, and relational frames with the requirements of resilience applications is essential for viability. The study offers stakeholder-based evidence for viability and identifies barriers and enablers, including battery passports, public procurement, and cost gaps, which affect these systems.