This start-up wants to breathe a second life into batteries from electric cars

Batteries from electric cars only have a limited service life. The start-up Voltfang from Aachen wants to reuse them after their service life. As storage units, they could potentially last ten years longer.

It all started with a camper van that three friends and fellow students Roman Alberti, Afshin Doostdar and David Oudsandji bought together. They drove it to festivals across Europe, to visit friends and on vacation. However, the camper van's battery did not last as long as the three men would have liked. So they installed a solar system on the roof of their van. "Then we thought about where we could store the surplus energy," says Oudsandji. When they researched what actually happens to used batteries from electric cars, they came across an incredible figure: only five percent of lithium-ion batteries in Europe are recycled at all. The majority are simply incinerated.

The three founders from Aachen want to put an end to this. They quickly discovered that batteries used in electric cars age exponentially after a certain point. However, if you change the way they are used, they could potentially last another ten years, the founders estimate. With their start-up Voltfang, they are therefore buying up old electric car batteries from Tesla, BMW and Ford and converting them. The aim is to turn high-performance batteries into home and industrial storage systems.

They want to give the recycling companies another ten years to come up with and implement suitable concepts for used batteries - so that they no longer have to be incinerated. "We can massively reduce the ecological footprint of electric batteries," says Oudsandji. However, the vision behind the project is not just to make the world a little more sustainable. If everything works out as the Voltfang founders imagine, the storage systems could also protect many people from overloading power grids or help companies to obtain electricity more cheaply.

The first investors have already knocked on the door

They quickly built the first prototype. Since April 2020, it has been supplying electricity to a private home in the founders' neighborhood. The Aachen-based company is now looking for investors and business angels in order to be able to start large-scale production. "We are getting a lot of feedback and interest is very high," says Oudsandji. He doesn't want to reveal any more details yet. But they are in talks with "a handful" of venture capital funds. There is also room for four to six business angels, whose network the founders would like to tap into.

A workshop is currently being set up in Aachen, where the founders are checking the batteries extensively for their condition and then combining them into storage units, the Voltfangs. The three founders initially want to start with larger industrial storage systems. These are easier to certify, explains Oudsandji. Home storage systems will then follow next year. Home storage systems are available from 10 kilowatt hours (kWh), industrial storage systems from 30 kWh.

We can massively reduce the ecological footprint of electric batteries.

Founder David Oudsandji, pictured right

The second problem that Voltfang wants to solve is peak loads. For example, when bakeries switch on all their appliances early in the morning - when electricity consumption is much higher than during normal operation - they have to pay for these peak loads in the energy grid. "We have calculated this for bakeries, farmers, hotels and many others, and the additional costs are enormous," says Oudsandji. "You can save several thousand euros with two or three peak load caps a year."

The idea: companies can charge the commercial storage units at lower electricity prices. They can release the stored energy before peak loads occur. For users, the investment in an industrial storage system would pay for itself after three to five years, the founder calculates. A bakery chain has already expressed interest. It even wants to invest in Voltfang. The three founders are also in talks with food chains and farmers. The industrial storage units are available from 17,000 euros.

The founders are currently receiving a grant

Private households could also feel the effects of the overloaded power grid in the future. Oudsandji fears that if everyone wants to charge their electric car after 6 p.m. in a few years' time, it could become more likely that there will be no electricity at these times - especially after the phase-out of nuclear power and coal, and if renewable energies do not yet generate sufficient electricity on a constant basis. He hopes that home storage systems will help to prevent this from happening. They should then compensate for the lack of energy by releasing stored energy. Electric cars could also be charged in this way, according to his vision. There is certainly interest. The start-up has already received around 100 inquiries from homeowners.

So far, the start-up has received the NRW start-up grant, which gives each founder 1,000 euros a month. This has allowed the trio to concentrate fully on their start-up in the first year. They also drew up a business plan with the Digital Hub Aachen. From April, the founders want to raise money and start production. With the financing in place, Voltfang should then really take off.