Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (Headquarters: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President and CEO: Karl Deppen, hereafter “MFTBC”) will conduct a demonstration of its Battery 2nd Life initiative starting from February 2025. Under this initiative, the company plans to repurpose used batteries from the its electric light-duty eCanter trucks to build energy storage systems.

MFTBC will jointly conduct the demonstration with CONNEXX SYSTEMS Corporation (Headquarters: Seika Town, Kyoto Prefecture, President: Hisashi Tsukamoto, hereafter: “CONNEXX SYSTEMS”), a company developing next-generation storage batteries. Used batteries from end-of-life eCanter models will be removed from the vehicles and used as power sources for “EnePOND® EV Charger (tentative name)” energy storage systems integrated with EV chargers developed by CONNEXX SYSTEMS.

*EnePOND® is a registered trademark of CONNEXX SYSTEMS Corporation.

EnePOND® EV Charger can reduce the load on the existing power grid whilst allowing for fast charging of multiple EVs simultaneously, it will also allow for EV charging during power outages. By repurposing used EV batteries, the expansion of charging infrastructure can be accelerated and costs reduced, whilst extending the lifespan of the battery.

In February 2025, an EnePOND® EV Charger will be installed at the city hall of Muko City, Kyoto Prefecture (Mayor: Mamoru Yasuda) and used to charge the city’s official EV cars. Later in the year, another EnePOND® EV Charger will be installed at MFTBC’s Kawasaki Plant (Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture) to charge vehicles including EV trucks. Through the demonstration, MFTBC and CONNEXX SYSTEMS aim to verify the practicality of EnePOND® EV Charger, establish applications for reusing used eCanter batteries, and proceed with a targeted 2026 implementation.

The Battery 2nd Life initiative is part of the Battery Lifecycle Management program within MFTBC’s FUSO eMobility Solutions package, which comprehensively supports customers in the introduction and operation of EV trucks. As batteries hold significant value in EVs and the number of used EV batteries and demand for processing them is expected to rapidly increase with the advancement of electrification, the Battery 2nd Life program and the Material Recovery initiative, announced in September 2024*1, are two key MFTBC strategies.

Once batteries are retrieved from a used eCanter, they will be reused for other applications under the Battery 2nd Life framework. When these batteries complete their roles in other applications, the materials will be recovered for use in new products. As such, MFTBC aims to establish a circular economy of batteries in order to maximize their material value, reduce the total cost of EVs, and further accelerate the shift to EVs.

SOURCE: Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation