India’s electric vehicle (EV) market is accelerating fast—expected to reach $113 billion by 2029, according to the India Energy Storage Alliance.
Yet a quieter, more complex challenge shadows this growth: what happens to the batteries when they die? A typical EV battery accounts for nearly 40% of the vehicle’s price, and while its range fades with time, the materials inside remain valuable.
This dilemma sits at the core of PeakAmp, a Gurugram-based cleantech startup founded in 2024. Positioned at the intersection of recycling, energy storage, and circular manufacturing, PeakAmp is seeking to redefine how India manages end-of-life EV batteries.
Under India’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules, automakers must collect and recycle every EV battery they sell—a mandate that has exposed critical gaps in the country’s recycling infrastructure. PeakAmp’s approach addresses two pain points simultaneously: compliance for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and uncertainty for EV owners unsure what to do when their battery performance declines.
Operating through a joint-venture recycling facility in Gujarat, PeakAmp collects end-of-life packs from more than ten OEMs—with 20 more in discussion. Each pack undergoes diagnostic testing, disassembly, and cell grading on a scale from A+ to C. A+ cells are repurposed for home inverters, while lower-grade cells find use in agricultural solar pumps and energy storage systems. The remainder are chemically processed to recover high-purity metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Vijay Gond, Co-founder and CEO says the firm has achieved 99.99% purity at the lab level—a standard that could make domestic recyclers competitive with established players in China and South Korea.
Recovered materials are then sold to over 15 B2B clients, including EV manufacturers and recyclers. The company earns revenue across multiple streams: resale of second-life cells, sales of recovered metals, and service fees from OEMs. With NMC second-life cells selling for Rs 40–60 each and end-of-life battery packs trading at Rs 100–150 per kg, PeakAmp’s vertically integrated model allows it to generate value at each step of the chain.
Scaling Toward Industrial Recycling
In just over a year, PeakAmp has reached a valuation of Rs 51 crore and generated Rs 12 crore in revenue. The startup recently raised another Rs 12 crore, led by Carat Capital’s Karan Mittal, a key investor in India’s EV ecosystem. The funds will expand operations, establish a chemical recycling plant, and build a hub-and-spoke logistics network designed for the safe movement of hazardous batteries—a logistical weak point in India’s current recycling landscape.
PeakAmp enters a competitive yet underdeveloped market, contending with established recyclers such as Lohum, Metastable Materials, and BatX Energy. Gond distinguishes PeakAmp’s strategy as ecosystem-driven rather than purely process-based: “Others are recyclers. We’re building the ecosystem.” This involves standardizing cell pricing through data-backed grading and developing digital traceability for OEM compliance—a step toward defining market benchmarks that currently don’t exist.
Pricing remains one of the most contentious issues. “Right now, no one knows the fair price of an old battery pack—it’s like the used car market before Spinny,” Gond notes. With India’s EV fleet still young, second-life applications and battery valuation methods are evolving faster than regulation.
While PeakAmp’s current operations are business-focused, the next frontier lies in the consumer market. The company is developing a B2C platform to let EV owners compare, finance, and replace battery packs—or purchase certified second-life options—without being locked to a single manufacturer. Given that a typical EV battery costs Rs 6 lakh on a Rs 20 lakh vehicle, the replacement market could soon become as crucial as initial sales.
India’s broader battery recycling industry, valued at $554 million in 2024, is projected by IMARC Group to reach $1.3 billion by 2033. Yet much of that potential depends on whether firms like PeakAmp can close the loop between recycling, reuse, and resale.
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