Talk about standing by your product and being green at the same time.
General Motors announced Tuesday that it's using old batteries from its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car to actually power its Enterprise Data Center offices in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press is reporting.
"Even after the battery has reached the end of its useful life in a Chevrolet Volt, up to 80 percent of its storage capacity remains," Pablo Valencia, GM's senior manager of battery life cycle management, told the Free Press. "This secondary use application extends its life, while delivering waste reduction and economic benefits on an industrial scale."
This is all part of GM's plan to test the economic life of a battery after being used in an electric vehicle—for future commercial and non-commercial considerations and uses. In other words, they're trying to drain the juice on these puppies until the very last drop and experiment with where else they can be used.
Curious as to how efficient these Volt batteries produced after already being used to power the vehicles? Well, according to the Free Press, it only took five Volt battery packs to light up GM's data center.
"The supply [Tuesday] is very small," Valencia added. "The importance of this announcement is that we are preparing for the future. This is a preparation for that time. Typically the lifecycle of a vehicle is 10 to 12 years."
An improved battery pack on the new 2016 Volt will reportedly be able to power the car for up to 50 miles before a gas-fueled engine takes over.
