South Korea to invest $12M in second life projects

The South Korean Ministry of Industry announced the 19th of January they will fund projects in remanufacturing, reuse and safe handling of retired EV batteries with 13 Bn won ($12M) between 2021 and 2024. 2.9Bn won will be invested already in 2021.

It was not disclosed which industrial partner that would participate in the projects.

The projects to be funded in 2021 include:

• Reuse, remanufacturing battery pack performance and safety test and evaluation technology development (1.4 billion won) which includes BMS development specially dedicated for second use.

• Development of mobility products such as golf carts, motorcycles etc based on second life batteries (500 million won).

• Development and demonstration of MWh-class ESS technology connected to renewable energy (Within 1 billion won) by using retired EV batteries.