LONG-TERM BENEFITS OF REMANUFACTURED ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY: A CASE OF THAILAND

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) is a potential solution to mitigate the environmental impacts for the automotive industry. However, the high BEV demand results in high electric vehicle battery (EVB) production and retired EVBs. This study utilizes the system dynamic modelling approach to explore the growth of BEV market based on key factors, namely the loan payment, fast charging station, driving range, available model, subsidy, tax reduction, and parking privilege. Benefits and costs of the remanufactured EVBs are then calculated to examine the feasibility of the EVB remanufacturing project. The simulation results reveal that providing parking privileges to the BEV users raise the BEV demand by 20.5%. The EVB remanufacturing project is feasible in seven years with the minimum acceptable internal rate return (IRR) of 18.49%. The sensitivity analysis results show that the IRR values increase to almost 65% at the end of year 25 when the selling prices of the remanufactured EVBs are as new and the remanufacturing costs are reduced by half. The simulation results offer insights to the Thai automotive industry and government to make strategies to promote the sustainable practices of the BEV and EVB industries.