An electric vehicle battery often still has useful capacity left when it leaves the car. Whether that capacity turns into a second working life depends less on the battery itself and more on second-life battery business models that make it worth paying for. That is the question CIRCUBATT has been working on, and we now need people who know the market to tell us where our thinking holds up.
Our WP1 team, led by the University of Greenwich, has designed four business models built on Battery-as-a-Service. Below we explain each one in plain terms. We also show you two ways to help shape them: a stakeholder survey you can take today, and two live online co-creation sessions on 16 December 2026.
Why second-life battery business models matter as much as the technology
Testing a used battery and building it into a storage system is only half the challenge. The other half is commercial. Someone has to own the battery and guarantee how it performs. They carry the risk if it ages faster than expected, and they still need to offer a price that competes with a new system.
Battery-as-a-Service tackles this by selling the service a battery delivers rather than the battery itself. The provider keeps ownership, monitors the battery’s health and takes it back at the end of its useful life. If the idea is new to you, our plain-language guide to Battery-as-a-Service covers the basics. Our article on when Battery-as-a-Service makes business sense looks at where the model tends to work and where it struggles. And if you’re wondering how ownership changes the picture, we compared selling, leasing and hybrid options for EV batteries.
The four second-life battery business models CIRCUBATT has designed
The four pathways come from our End-of-Life BaaS Business Model Handbook. It combines a structured review of the literature and the industry with stakeholder co-creation. Each pathway targets a different kind of customer and earns money in a different way.
Pathway A: Grid Optimisers
This pathway turns retired EV batteries into service-managed storage for utilities, energy traders, aggregators, industrial sites and EV charging depots. The batteries earn their keep by supporting the grid, shifting energy to cheaper hours and cutting peak demand. Customers typically pay a fixed monthly capacity fee, set according to how the battery is expected to age, sometimes with a share of market revenues on top. The big open questions are price swings in energy markets and whether intensive daily use wears the batteries out too quickly. That concern connects to a common myth we tackled in how second-life batteries really perform.
Pathway B: Grid Independents
Here the priority is security of supply rather than trading. Think critical public services, data centres, rural communities and industrial sites with a weak grid connection or none at all. The value comes from avoided outages, less diesel and lower backup costs. So the handbook favours shared savings: the provider earns a contracted share of the savings it can verify. A fixed-fee lease is an alternative for customers who prefer budget certainty. The hard part is proving those savings, and convincing lenders to finance batteries whose remaining life is uncertain.
Pathway C: Mobile Power Users
This pathway builds a centrally managed fleet of transportable battery units for construction sites, events, emergency responders and off-grid users. Customers rent power by the day or by the energy delivered, or pay a subscription to keep units available. The weak spots are units sitting idle between jobs, logistics costs, and the varied ageing of mixed cells. The handbook suggests handling the ageing through short contracts and recertifying units at a central depot between deployments.
Pathway D: Consumer & Light Mobility
The last pathway reuses battery modules in compact applications such as e-bike and e-scooter fleets. Customers pay through tiered subscriptions, a fee per battery swap, or charges for extra use. Swap networks need heavy upfront investment, swap income is hard to predict, and city rules on micromobility and charging add uncertainty. The handbook also draws a clear line between genuine second-life reuse and cases where taking batteries apart down to cell level turns the project into remanufacturing.
Step 1: Take the second-life battery business models survey
Our stakeholder validation survey asks you to choose the pathways closest to your work and evaluate up to two of them. Questions cover market needs, commercial and operational feasibility, value for different stakeholders and how a pilot could work in practice. There is optional space to suggest improvements. It takes about 10 minutes, and responses are treated confidentially and analysed in aggregated form.
We especially want to hear from battery manufacturers and repurposers, energy service providers, potential customers and end users, researchers, and anyone working on battery applications or circular business models. Take the survey here.
Step 2: Shape the models live on 16 December
The survey findings will feed directly into two live online co-creation sessions on 16 December 2026. Each session lasts 45 minutes. After a short welcome, we spend ten minutes on the first survey findings, then 25 minutes in interactive discussion with live polling, and close with a quick wrap up and next steps.
Topic 1, from 11:00 to 11:45 CET, asks where second-life batteries can really create value, looking at applications, customer needs and value propositions. After a 15 minute break, Topic 2, from 12:00 to 12:45 CET, asks how second-life battery services should be sold, from revenue models to risk sharing and practical delivery. You can join one topic or both. Register for the sessions on Zoom.
What happens with your input
Your feedback goes into the final version of the handbook, due in early 2027. It will also help decide which models move forward into pilot testing within the project. It matters beyond CIRCUBATT too. As our recent analysis of where Europe’s second-life battery policy stands shows, the rules are still catching up. Meanwhile the EU Batteries Regulation will make digital battery passports mandatory for EV batteries from 18 February 2027. Models that work in practice will help turn that framework into a real market. You can follow the project’s progress on our LinkedIn page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a battery expert to take part? No. We want practical views from anyone who might build, sell, buy, finance or study second-life battery services, whatever their technical background.
Can I join the live sessions without taking the survey? Yes. Both are open separately, although taking the survey first gives you a head start on the questions we will discuss.
Can I attend both topics? Yes. Each topic runs for 45 minutes with a 15 minute break between them, and you can choose one or both when you register.