The diffusion of electric vehicles suffers from immature and expensive battery technologies. Repurposing electric vehicle batteries for second-life application scenarios may lower the vehicles' total costs of ownership and increases their ecologic sustainability. However, identifying the best-or even a feasible-scenario for which to repurpose a battery is a complex and unresolved decision problem. In this exaptation research, we set out to design, implement, and evaluate the first decision support system that aids decision-makers in the automobile industry with repurposing electric vehicle batteries. The exaptation is done by classifying decisions on repurposing products as bipartite matching problems and designing two binary integer linear programs that identify (a) all technical feasible assignments and (b) optimal assignments of products and scenarios. Based on an empirical study and expert interviews, we parameterize both binary integer linear programs for repurposing electric vehicle batteries. In a field experiment, we show that our decision support system considerably increases the decision quality in terms of hit rate, miss rate, precision, fallout, and accuracy. While practitioners can use the implemented decision support system when repurposing electric vehicle batteries, other researchers can build on our results to design decision support systems for repurposing further products.

Proof-of-concept projects have demonstrated that used electric vehicle batteries (EVBs), after their removal from electric vehicles due to insufficient performance, can be repurposed for less demanding applications. It is expected that numerous batteries will be available for repurposing in the 2020s. However, the information asymmetries and transaction costs of trading used EVBs have remained unexplored, as have principles that guide the design of information systems that support the trade. Based on existing literature and in-depth interviews with battery experts, we conceptualize two key transactions for trading used EVBs. We then identify potential information asymmetries and transaction costs based on new institutional economic theory and propose five design principles that information Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.systems should implement to address these information asymmetries and transaction costs. Subsequent research can build on our results to further frame the economic properties of trading used EVBs and to design information systems in line with new institutional economic theory.

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