India’s electrical automobile (EV) market is accelerating quick—anticipated to succeed in $113 billion by 2029, based on the India Vitality Storage Alliance.
But a quieter, extra complicated problem shadows this development: what occurs to the batteries once they die? A typical EV battery accounts for practically 40% of the automobile’s value, and whereas its vary fades with time, the supplies inside stay beneficial.
This dilemma sits on the core of PeakAmp, a Gurugram-based cleantech startup based in 2024. Positioned on the intersection of recycling, vitality storage, and round manufacturing, PeakAmp is looking for to redefine how India manages end-of-life EV batteries.
Beneath India’s Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR) guidelines, automakers should gather and recycle each EV battery they promote—a mandate that has uncovered crucial gaps within the nation’s recycling infrastructure. PeakAmp’s strategy addresses two ache factors concurrently: compliance for unique tools producers (OEMs) and uncertainty for EV house owners not sure what to do when their battery efficiency declines.
Working by means of a joint-venture recycling facility in Gujarat, PeakAmp collects end-of-life packs from greater than ten OEMs—with 20 extra in dialogue. Every pack undergoes diagnostic testing, disassembly, and cell grading on a scale from A+ to C. A+ cells are repurposed for residence inverters, whereas lower-grade cells discover use in agricultural photo voltaic pumps and vitality storage techniques. The rest are chemically processed to recuperate high-purity metals reminiscent of lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Vijay Gond, Co-founder and CEO says the agency has achieved 99.99% purity on the lab stage—a regular that would make home recyclers aggressive with established gamers in China and South Korea.
Recovered supplies are then offered to over 15 B2B shoppers, together with EV producers and recyclers. The corporate earns income throughout a number of streams: resale of second-life cells, gross sales of recovered metals, and repair charges from OEMs. With NMC second-life cells promoting for Rs 40–60 every and end-of-life battery packs buying and selling at Rs 100–150 per kg, PeakAmp’s vertically built-in mannequin permits it to generate worth at every step of the chain.
Scaling Towards Industrial Recycling
In simply over a 12 months, PeakAmp has reached a valuation of Rs 51 crore and generated Rs 12 crore in income. The startup not too long ago raised one other Rs 12 crore, led by Carat Capital’s Karan Mittal, a key investor in India’s EV ecosystem. The funds will develop operations, set up a chemical recycling plant, and construct a hub-and-spoke logistics community designed for the secure motion of hazardous batteries—a logistical weak level in India’s present recycling panorama.
PeakAmp enters a aggressive but underdeveloped market, contending with established recyclers reminiscent of Lohum, Metastable Supplies, and BatX Vitality. Gond distinguishes PeakAmp’s technique as ecosystem-driven fairly than purely process-based: “Others are recyclers. We’re constructing the ecosystem.” This entails standardizing cell pricing by means of data-backed grading and growing digital traceability for OEM compliance—a step towards defining market benchmarks that at the moment don’t exist.
Pricing stays one of the crucial contentious points. “Proper now, nobody is aware of the truthful value of an previous battery pack—it’s just like the used automobile market earlier than Spinny,” Gond notes. With India’s EV fleet nonetheless younger, second-life purposes and battery valuation strategies are evolving sooner than regulation.
Whereas PeakAmp’s present operations are business-focused, the following frontier lies within the shopper market. The corporate is growing a B2C platform to let EV house owners examine, finance, and exchange battery packs—or buy licensed second-life choices—with out being locked to a single producer. Given {that a} typical EV battery prices Rs 6 lakh on a Rs 20 lakh automobile, the substitute market may quickly develop into as essential as preliminary gross sales.
India’s broader battery recycling trade, valued at $554 million in 2024, is projected by IMARC Group to succeed in $1.3 billion by 2033. But a lot of that potential depends upon whether or not corporations like PeakAmp can shut the loop between recycling, reuse, and resale.
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