Before even starting college, Joseph Metzler Concepcion had a business idea and knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur.
He’d spent his middle and high school years tinkering with different electrical projects, putting together everything from racing drones to electric bikes. But he kept running into a big problem: Lithium-ion batteries that run electric vehicles are expensive.
That is not just a problem for hobbyists. The transportation sector is scrambling to figure out what to do with used electric vehicle (EV) batteries after they are done being used in commercial cars. Today, most EV batteries get “stored, destroyed, or wasted” after their first application lifespan, Metzler Concepcion told Hypepotamus.
However, those used batteries can maintain upwards of 80 percent of their State of Health. That means they could be repurposed and resold to light electric vehicles, golf carts, RV’s, solar installations, off-grid systems, and commercial energy storage systems.
He said choosing to go to Georgia Tech was a “no brainer” for him after learning about Create-X, the popular on-campus entrepreneurial program. During his first semester, Metzler Concepcion built out a proof of concept for a company that could take used car batteries and harness their energy to power an electric bike.
During the summer after freshman year, he joined Create-X’s Startup Launch to focus full-time on Metzev, his startup focused on second-life electric vehicle batteries. He said the program helped Metzev find its niche partnering with automotive OEMs with used batteries. This allows people to get access to lithium ion batteries at about fifty percent of the cost of what is currently available on the market.
“We’re making the electrification market open to a much larger demographic of people,” he said. “That’s really the only way that we’re going to get anywhere on sustainable energy generation and storage.”
Energizing The EV Battery World
The team raised its $320k pre-seed round earlier this year from Christopher Klaus’ Atlanta-based Fusen. Now the team is focused on distributing batteries for applications which may include light electric vehicles, golf carts, RV’s, solar installations, off-grid systems, and commercial energy storage systems as well as providing test results for every battery module.
Metzev has moved the startup’s operations from Peachtree City, Georgia to Atlanta, where they have a location close to the airport. The team officially launched its online store today, which ships second-life batteries across the contiguous United States.
Note from Metzev: Customers are solely responsible for determining battery suitability for any end use.
