Academic Journal
Understanding a battery's environmental footprint across its lifecycle: Should governments support the development of battery management systems?
| Title: | Understanding a battery's environmental footprint across its lifecycle: Should governments support the development of battery management systems? |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Singh, Nandan Kumar1 (AUTHOR), Verma, Nishant Kumar2 (AUTHOR) nishantv@iimb.ac.in, Kumar, Milan3 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Decision Sciences. Jun2026, Vol. 57 Issue 3, p256-276. 21p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Subsidies, *Ecological impact, *Energy industries, Battery management systems, Waste products management, Electric vehicles, Sustainability |
| Abstract: | The article examines the economic and environmental impact of government subsidies for battery lifecycle management (BLM) through the development of battery management systems (BMS) in electric vehicles (EVs). For the firms, investment in BMS increases battery life, which in turn improves firm profit; however, BMS development is a costly affair. Governments are inclined to support investment in BLM, such as BMS development, if it has positive environmental implications. Intuition suggests that environmental benefits always increase with battery longevity; however, we find that the environmental outcome of BMS‐led improved battery age is not as straightforward. We propose a quantification metric for the environmental impact of batteries across their lifecycle and prove that net environmental gain (NEG) is a convex unimodal function of BMS development effort (and, in turn, the increased battery age). Subsequently, we analyze the optimal government strategy to support BMS development, which depends on the sustainability status of a battery's disposal and replacement processes (end‐of‐life) and that of the energy generation processes for powering EV batteries (in‐life). We find that the government's decision to offer a subsidy shifts from full to partial to no support as the end‐of‐life practices become increasingly sustainable. A deeper inspection reveals that the above observation is moderated by the sustainability of the in‐life practices and the technological capability of the BMS to increase battery age. Specifically, contrasting insights emerge when the in‐life practices are highly unsustainable, such that the government extends either full support or no support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Decision Sciences is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Business Source Index |
Be the first to leave a comment!