FPT, the leading multinational provider of low environmental impact drive solutions including batteries for electric light commercial vehicles, buses and minibuses, and Reefilla, an innovative Turin-based startup offering the first predictive mobile charging service, have launched a joint pilot project aimed at giving a second life to batteries from electric commercial vehicles.
The new collaboration aims to define and validate a full-circle process to reuse electric vehicle batteries once their service life has expired. The proposed solution would also assure full sustainability and compliance with new European regulations. Manufactured by FPT Industrial in its ePowertrain plant in Turin along with e-axles for light and heavy commercial vehicles and minibuses, some of the eBS37 batteries will be delivered to Reefilla when they are no longer suitable for powering electric traction. The startup will then recover the batteries’ modules and over 50% of their internal components, which will then be installed in Reefilla’s Fillee mobile power banks, used to recharge its clients’ electric vehicles. By using parts from the high-performance eBS37 batteries, Reefilla counts on significantly increasing the charge capacity of its Fillee power banks.
Founded in Turin in April 2021, incubated in I3P - the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino - and supported by the Motor Valley Accelerator, Reefilla has developed an ecosystem of recharging products and services for electric mobility. Currently, the young Italian company has operations in Turin and Milan, where it offers predictive mobile charging services for commercial fleets and private users. The Fillee power banks, equipped with re-used battery parts, are delivered to clients’ vehicles by a fleet of electric vans, thus offering a top-up of green power through photovoltaic recharging centers. This means that the clients’ vehicles are always fully charged, wherever they are and before they ask.
Through the pilot project, FPT aims to create a responsible life cycle that manages batteries from production to reuse, and actively contribute to the carbon-neutral supply chain of electric mobility. The partnership with Reefilla is a perfect example of the innovative approach adopted by FPT to solve the problem of end-of-life electric traction batteries: FPT indeed sees the “second life” of these batteries as being both an opportunity to extract further value from them and a chance to make the best possible contribution to the circular economy. The open innovation methodology, that creates value through partnerships with high-tech startups, is allowing FPT to accelerate its technological innovation journey along a sustainable path, lining up alongside innovative new businesses within its industrial ecosystem.
“In addition to its important consequences in terms of a second life for batteries and sustainability for the entire process,” said Andrea Cugnini, Head of FPT's ePowertrain Business Line, “this pilot project with Reefilla demonstrates that multinationals and startups not only can, but indeed must work together to exchange ideas and implement innovative solutions.”
“Innovating means imagining the future in terms of new paradigms; we are delighted to have encountered the same ambition and goals in a big player like FPT”, said Marco Bevilacqua, Co-Founder & CEO of Reefilla. “Bringing Italian industrial excellence into a startup has been anything but simple, but it has been greatly accelerated by a team dedicated to change and with the imagination to realize it - the same values on which Reefilla is founded.”
Following a positive conclusion to the pilot project, the two companies intend to proceed with broader technical and commercial negotiations in order to further reinforce the synergies between their respective business areas.
