InfrastructureJun 4By Ben Smith

Used Waymo robotaxi batteries become backup storage for power grids

Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions announced a strategic supply agreement on June 4 to repurpose used batteries from Waymo's ~4,000-vehicle robotaxi fleet (mostly Jaguar I-Pace with 90 kWh packs, plus newer Zeekr Ojai units with 93 kWh packs) into stationary grid storage projects in California and Texas, including a 24 MWh site in Bexar County supporting Waymo's San Antonio deployment. B2U has already received initial battery quantities and expects hundreds of megawatt-hours of capacity over time.

Why it matters

The interesting number is residual battery value, not the press-release circularity. Robotaxis cycle batteries far faster than consumer EVs (Waymo confirmed mileage "beyond what a normal consumer drives"), which means Waymo is the first AV operator generating used pack supply at meaningful scale years ahead of the consumer EV second-life curve. At ~90 kWh per pack and thousands of vehicles, the resale value of degraded-but-functional batteries becomes a real line item on robotaxi unit economics. If B2U is paying anything north of scrap for packs at 70-80% state of health, that's a few thousand dollars per vehicle recovered at end of automotive life, partially offsetting the capex disadvantage Waymo carries against Tesla's vertically integrated stack.

The Bexar County siting is the tell on where this goes next. B2U placed storage near Waymo's San Antonio charging load, which hints at a future where AV operators co-locate fleet charging with stationary storage built from their own retired packs to arbitrage grid peaks. That's a different infrastructure model than the Uber-in-Austin natural-gas-generator workaround, and it's the one anyone underwriting robotaxi fleet economics in ERCOT or CAISO should be modeling.

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