Mazda and Toyota have begun testing a new energy utilization system that uses used batteries from electric cars to store the energy that powers Mazda’s factory in Hiroshima, Japan.
The pilot project called “Sweep Energy Storage System” is now in the testing phase, aimed at contributing to the construction of a battery ecosystem, an integral part of the seven issues in the mobility industry that the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association is addressing across the industry.
In support of the stable supply of critical resources and the construction of a resilient supply chain, the battery ecosystem aims to sustainably reuse batteries in Japan, including those from electrified vehicles.
For the ongoing tests, the energy system of Mazda’s headquarters campus — the only energy generation system operated by a car manufacturer in Japan — and Toyota’s system, which uses electric vehicle batteries, will be connected through their respective energy management systems. This will allow for the verification of stable, high-quality, and efficient charging and discharging.
In the future, the storage system will be used to regulate the supply and demand of renewable energies, which varies according to weather conditions and the time of day, contributing to carbon neutrality.
The system also allows for the quick switching on and off of the energy flow from each battery, even when new batteries are connected to other more degraded batteries or of different capacities.
