Moment Energy is moving quickly to establish one of the world’s most ambitious electric vehicle (EV) battery repurposing facilities, beginning a rapid retrofit of an existing industrial structure in Surrey, British Columbia, with operations expected to start by the end of June.
Work on the site began in May, with the company targeting completion of the transformation within just six weeks. By choosing to retrofit an existing building rather than constructing a traditional greenfield manufacturing plant, Moment Energy is significantly reducing the development timeline. Conventional battery production facilities often require several years of planning and construction before becoming operational.
Unlike standard lithium-ion battery manufacturing plants that rely on raw material processing, the Surrey facility will focus entirely on repurposing retired EV batteries. These batteries, once removed from vehicles, will be tested, reconditioned and transformed into large-scale energy storage systems designed for industrial users, utilities and data centre operators.
Edward Chiang, co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy, said the project is intended to address the growing global demand for energy infrastructure.
“This is about building the infrastructure needed to support the next generation of energy demand,” Chiang said. “We are proud to establish this facility in Canada, the country where Moment Energy was founded, to foster domestic manufacturing.
“This scaling solution utilizes existing battery resources to deliver the reliable, affordable power that is so crucial right now.”
The facility is being designed as a fully vertically integrated operation, meaning it will manage the entire lifecycle of second-life batteries under one roof. Incoming battery packs will first undergo inspection, diagnostic testing and performance evaluation. They will then be sorted and graded based on remaining capacity and overall condition before entering reconditioning and rebuilding processes.
Once refurbished, the batteries will be assembled into modular energy storage systems and configured for deployment. Dedicated safety and testing zones will verify performance and compliance before final products are delivered to customers.
The site will also feature advanced diagnostic tools, battery health assessment systems, electrical integration technologies and specialized production lines tailored for energy storage manufacturing.
Chiang emphasised that the process does not involve raw material extraction or traditional battery cell production.
“The shell of the building is finished,” he explained. “We’re not taking raw lithium, cobalt, manganese, battery critical minerals, we’re not rolling them into battery cells.” Instead, the focus is on extending the useful life of existing EV batteries through repurposing.
The primary output of the facility will be commercial-scale battery energy storage systems. These systems are expected to serve a range of customers, including utilities seeking grid stability, industrial operators aiming to reduce energy costs and improve resilience, and data centres facing rising electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence and cloud computing expansion.
Moment Energy said EV batteries typically retain between 80% and 90% of their capacity when retired from automotive use. Through testing and reconditioning, the company believes many of these batteries can still deliver up to 90% to 95% usable life, making them suitable for stationary storage applications.
The repurposed systems will be used for backup power during outages, integration with renewable energy sources such as solar, and grid balancing to help utilities manage fluctuations in supply and demand. The approach also extends battery life by at least a decade while reducing reliance on newly manufactured cells and lowering environmental impacts associated with mining and raw material processing.
The company has set an ambitious production target of reaching 1 gigawatt-hour of annual capacity by 2030. More than 100 skilled jobs are expected to be created in British Columbia over the next five years as operations scale up.
Moment Energy also plans to maintain a domestic supply chain, ensuring that batteries sourced from North American electric vehicles remain within the region throughout the repurposing process.
The Surrey facility will operate under a leading industry certification standard governing the evaluation and repurposing of used battery systems, positioning it among a limited number of global facilities working at this scale under formal certification frameworks.
Funding for the project comes from a recently completed US$40 million Series B round, bringing the company’s total capital raised to over US$100 million. The round was led by Evok Innovations and is supporting expansion efforts in both British Columbia and Texas as demand for energy storage continues to accelerate.
Chiang linked the project to broader shifts in energy infrastructure driven by digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
“AI is exposing what’s been broken in the grid for years, and the answer isn’t waiting on the next trillion-dollar utility upgrade,” he said. “The era of independent energy is here, energy free from a grid that can’t keep up, supply chains we don’t control, and decades of new extraction. It starts with the batteries already on our roads. We’re certified to put them to work.”
