▲ SICELL / CEO Changin Kim

The number of electric sedans in the global car market surpassed 5 million last year. In South Korea alone, it increased to 31,200 in 2018 from 14,300 in 2017 with around 50,000 in prospect of 2019. As the electric car market is growing, so is the battery industry. While some forerunners focus on original technology, some focus on reuse of used batteries and one of them is SICELL. 

It is estimated around 1,500 used electric car batteries will be dumped into the market next year. Most electric cars on the road use lithium battery and the performance declines sharply after 500 times of charging. Because of high density of lithium battery, it can be reused after saying goodbye to its electric car. 

SICELL has walked a single path to develop batteries for the last 10 years and boasts extensive knowledge, experience and core technologies with main focus on UPS and ESS. CEO Changin Kim says:

“Electric car battery cells have better safety and performance than normal battery cells. They are stronger and last longer. What we, the battery specialists at SICELL, do is to find methods of reusing these dumped batteries with various purposes.”

The government predicts that around 1,464 electric cars will see the dead of their batteries next year and around 9,155 by 2022. The problem is that the government is yet to bring up measures on how to reuse these used batteries. 

August 24 at an innovative growth meeting held at the APEC House Busan, SICELL unveiled sharing-based bicycle and scooter as well as UPS. The company has played a role to tow the Deregulation Zone and taken in charge of the next generation battery recycling project of North Gyeongsang Province. 

The project consists of three parts: 1) possibility of reuse 2) making it into product 3) resourcing the used batteries. And SICELL is playing the core role in the second part. The goal of SICELL is not only at reusing but also building a multi sharing platform that can cover areas such as batter stations and battery apps. 

For this, SICELL is working in cooperation with Aims, and 4M, an in-house startup of Hyundai Motor Group, for used electric car battery verification systems. The systems will record all the process from production of a battery to disuse and make the record into a big data for future reference. 

“Used electric car battery verification systems are still in its infancy even in the advanced countries. So we need to move fast in order to take the best seat in the field. SICELL will start services around the middle of next year. We target to complete a large scale battery sharing platform within 3 to 4 years and we are ambitious to lead the global market in the field.”