Gouach and Lime join forces for the second life of batteries

Batteries are essential to the functioning of our electric mobility, but they are difficult to manufacture and recycle. Their life span is short, due to planned obsolescence. On average, micromobility batteries do not last more than 2 years.

So what do we do with the thousands of batteries thrown away every year? The partnership between Gouach, a French manufacturer of repairable batteries, and Lime, a self-service electric bike and scooter operator, aim to answer this. Gouach is committed to recovering lithium cells from Lime's defective batteries in order to manufacture new batteries.

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Giving a second life to e-bike and scooter batteries

During this partnership, Gouach will collect more than 2,000 batteries from the Lime operator in order to dismantle them and extract the lithium-ion cells.

The cells will be tested individually, keeping only those in perfect working condition. Defective cells will be sent for recycling.

The selected cells will be reused for the manufacture of new batteries, which will have the same capacity and performance as classical batteries.

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Reusing cells for other applications

The list goes on and on as to what applications Gouach's second life batteries will be put to. The Lime / Gouach partnership will notably give life to the Powerbank manufacturing project by Innov8, a leader in the distribution of connected products.

As Gouach's core business being to design and manufacture repairable and eco-designed batteries for heavier applications, it was only a natural fit to collaborate with Innov8 on the small repairable battery segment.

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Creating a circular economy for batteries

Apart from being a logical industrial cooperation, the Lime-Gouach partnership responds to the need for a circular economy of micromobility batteries that has yet to be seen in France. The recovery of battery cells destined to be thrown away offers a sustainable solution in their decarbonation.

Thanks to this partnership, several tens of thousands of cells will be used to manufacture new batteries instead of being thrown away. Tons of electronic waste will be avoided and rare metals will be recovered in Europe.

The reuse of components from end-of-life batteries also responds to the rising cost of lithium-ion cells and to France's dominance in this field.

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