It’s no secret that recycling batteries from electric cars is a complicated topic, but it’s one much more promise now than just a few years ago.

These days, there are places all over the world capable of recycling EV batteries, whether it’s extracting cobalt and nickel, disposing lithium with the aim of one day being able to reclaim it, and repurposing batteries for new purposes. There’s all sorts of options for spent units.

Volvo has its own incentive it’s pushing, too. Overnight the marque confirmed plans to create closed-material loops by designing all future components of its cars to be capable of being reused, as opposed to becoming waste. It aims to hit this goal by 2040.

“Volvo Cars has one of the most ambitious climate plans in the car industry, and if we are to reach our goals, we need to embrace the circular economy,” said Anders Kärrberg, Volvo’s head of global sustainability.

“This requires us to rethink everything we do and how we do it. We put a strong focus on integrating sustainability into the way we think and work as a company, and we are making it as important as safety has always been to us.”

On the battery front, Volvo plans to utilise units that are past their prime in “energy storage solutions outside of cars”, allowing for new revenue streams, cost savings, and the extension of the average battery’s life cycle.

While Volvo’s goal for making this a full reality across its cars is 19 years away, it’s already getting to work on re-homing batteries, having inked a partnership deal with a company called BatteryLoop.

The firm plans to use old Volvo batteries for its solar-powered energy storage system, which supplies power to car and bike chargers in Sweden. This is just one of the pies Volvo has an EV finger in, with a selection of other companies also partnering with the brand for future re-usable product.

Batteries in electric cars being reused later in their life cycle isn’t anything new. Batteries in crash-damaged Teslas are known to be hot property for backyard engineers, who often scavenge them for use as home power supply units. The difference here is that Volvo is enabling and supporting the process from cradle to grave.

“Volvo Cars is investigating how batteries age when re-used in second-life applications that have significantly less aggressive cycling compared to in-car use. They also allow the company to gain more knowledge about the commercial value of batteries after use in cars and identify potential future revenue streams,” Volvo’s statement adds.