With global electric vehicle sales projected to exceed 14.5 million units by the end of 2023, industry insiders say research and institutional improvements regarding the reuse of used batteries are stagnant, and research and development on hydrogen fuel cell vehicle generators is not underway.

In an interview with our newspaper, Nam Jun-hee, CEO of Goodbye Car, talked about the endless potential for reusing used electric vehicle batteries and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle generators, but said that while institutional improvements and research and development are lacking,

Goodbye Car started out as an automobile scrapping business and is now expanding into the recycling business, such as making small electric storage devices from used electric vehicle batteries.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is currently working on a project to design an electric storage device BMS with modules to be installed on Hyundai Motor Company's E-GMP platform and a charger/discharger to test it. Upon completion of development, it is expected that the business will be able to expand to countries that import E-GMP-based electric vehicles.

The previously developed small-scale electric storage device using waste batteries was manufactured to output less than the original capacity of the electric vehicle battery, and was designed to shut down when the temperature rises above a certain level, eliminating the risk of fire.

It is encouraging that no fires have occurred in products sold so far or products used in offices.

Representative Nam expressed his disappointment, saying that while there is a high potential for growth in products utilizing waste batteries, there is still a sense of dauntingness as there is no company in Korea that tests them on a module basis.

Additionally, currently used batteries are classified as explosives.Since it is not possible to export it, it is stuck in the country.

Nam Jun-hee, the CEO, said that he had tried to send small battery storage devices to the people of Ukraine who were suffering from the Russian invasion, but that international transportation was not possible, so he sent a product equipped with a new battery.

It has been reported that the power storage devices and portable solar panels sent by Goodbye Car are being used by drone units, but Representative Nam said that for security reasons, he cannot receive photos or other data.

He noted the reusability of not only batteries but also drive motors, saying, “It would be a shame to only extract materials without reusing them, but research is not being conducted on them,” and “There will be many ways to utilize drive motors, such as replacing old motors in mills by taking advantage of their fewer parts and less likely to break down.”

The need for research on the reusability of generators in hydrogen electric vehicles, such as Hyundai Motor Company's Nexo, was also emphasized.

Hydrogen electric vehicle generators cost close to 40 million won, and despite over 1 trillion won in subsidies, no research has been conducted on their reusability.

CEO Nam Jun-hee said, “As discussions on the full-cycle assessment of eco-friendly vehicles are actively taking place, reusability and recyclability will become increasingly important criteria in environmental assessments, and these should be considered from the design stage.”