Bringing dead batteries back to life

Sales of electric transport solutions continue to rise, and the coronavirus pandemic did not slow sales of products such as electric bikes. The Norwegian Sporting Goods Industry Association estimates that 80,000 electric bikes were sold in 2020.

The downside is increased battery waste and a lack of reuse solutions. When the battery fails, the easiest option has often been to buy a new electric bike.

Greg Marton wants to change this. Driven by a passion for extending battery life, he sat alone in his Oslo flat in spring 2020, sketching out possible solutions to the problem.

'Yedlik presented a potential solution to the battery waste problem and had clear plans for how to scale it up. With a well-established sustainability profile and confirmed interest from the industry, we considered this an exciting project that warranted further market validation,' says Ingrid Døskeland, financing advisor at our Scaleup and Startup Centre.

Just over a year after receiving a market clarification grant from Innovation Norway, Greg Marton and co-founder Krystof Heger now have six full-time employees repairing and developing new parts for used batteries at their bicycle workshop in Oslo. Their next step is to take their proprietary parts to international markets.

Marton has no doubt that our support was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.

‘Innovation Norway made this possible. The market clarification grant gave us the small push we needed to test our business idea. Without the support we received, this would probably have remained a hobby project that I might eventually have abandoned.’

Marton goes on to explain that although the grant represents a modest sum in a major development project, it was enough to test whether repairing batteries was viable at all. The commercialisation grant has also enabled Yedlik to devote time and resources to further developing the components.

- The grants from Innovation Norway have given us the time to carefully consider and design these complex components.

In its early stages, Yedlik focused on repairing used batteries. Partnerships with Batteriretur and Norsirk have provided a reliable supply of batteries, allowing Yedlik to sort through the waste to recover the parts it needs. This business model has limited scalability, so Yedlik now focuses primarily on developing its own components for use in second-life batteries.

The target customers are companies specialising in e-bike battery repairs, and Yedlik aims to begin exporting the components to Sweden and the Czech Republic soon.

'The market is global. The bicycle brands used in Oslo are also available in São Paulo. Battery repairers in Buenos Aires need the same parts as we do here.'

The sales channel will be eBay and similar platforms, but Yedlik will offer more than just the components.

‘We will also sell know-how, for example through YouTube videos showing how to install the components and how they work.’

The company has already attracted considerable attention. It was recently invited by Vestfold and Telemark County Council to take part in a workshop for waste management operators. Among other things, Yedlik presented a project carried out in partnership with Lime and Buddy Electric. Used batteries from 90 of Lime’s electric scooters were repurposed to build a battery for the Buddy electric car. These batteries, which would otherwise have been discarded, more than doubled the car’s range and reduced its weight by 150 kilograms!

- This was a technologically exciting project that demonstrates the potential of used batteries. We are now working on another project, repurposing used electric car batteries for solar-powered street lights. Our vision is to make micromobility truly sustainable, Marton concludes.