Stellantis finds second-life battery application with mobility scooter
Stellantis has revealed that it is branching out in its efforts to drive forward its activities in the field of high-voltage battery reuse. The company has now begun dismantling the original 15 kWh modules from Intent, a Turin-based system integrator, and repackaging them into new units through its SUSTAINera branch dedicated to circular economy efforts.
One of the latest applications for the new second-life batteries is the Avathar One, an electric vehicle for people in wheelchairs or with limited mobility. It is a kind of mobility scooter that has space to park a wheelchair inside. It runs either on a 1.4 kWh short-range battery or a 2.8 kWh long-range variant. Both feature an integrated battery management system.
It was designed in 2010 by Italdesign Giugiaro as the WheeM-i concept, and has now been adapted into a series vehicle, after an accompanying agreement was signed in May 2023 between Avathor and Italdesign. It is now available on the market yet however, pre-orders are being accepted. Stellantis also writes that the “AVATHOR ONE will be featured at the upcoming Salone Auto Torino, as part of Italdesign’s display.”
Beyond Avathor, Stellantis is working with several energy suppliers and battery integrators to provide second-life batteries and develop energy storage solutions. One example of this is the Pioneer project at Rome Fiumicino Airport, which was announced in early June. The stationary 10 MWh storage system there uses a total of 762 battery modules from Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis vehicles and works in tandem with a 31 GWh photovoltaic system.
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