Samsar Upcycles Electric Vehicle Battery From 1,000th Nissan Leaf – Transforming Old Cars Into New Energy Storage

Samsar has returned over 25 MWh of battery capacity to the field instead of the recycler.

SUGARLAND, TX, UNITED STATES, September 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Samsar Resources, a start-up turned industry leader in the re-manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries, is proud to celebrate the transformation of 1,000 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle batteries into new forms of energy storage.

Founded by Steve Hellman, a venture capitalist and founder of Mobility Impact Partners, Samsar was created to capture the full value of lithium batteries by designing batteries made to be remanufactured at the end of their first service life, and by remanufacturing high value lithium batteries like those found in electric vehicles.

For Guillermo Garcia, founding CEO, hitting this milestone was a hard earned moment: “When I joined the team in 2022 we didn’t know if this was going to work. We had this amazing opportunity with Nissan to do something will all the thousands of batteries that were coming out of old Nissan Leafs each year. But every process we developed, every step in building a factory for re-manufacturing EV batteries was new. There was no playbook. It was a lot of sweat, tears, and late nights. But we got it done and I am so proud of what our team has achieved here in Sugarland. Hitting one-thousand. This is big.”

Named after the concept of *samsara*, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, Samsar designs batteries for a circular economy. Batteries designed to last and designed to be easy to service and repair. Champions of the concept of Design for Remanufacturing (DfRem), by hitting this milestone Samsar has demonstrated that remanufacturing lithium batteries like the Nissan Leaf can be a profitable alternative to recycling or the landfill, while building a more robust US lithium battery supply chain and conserving precious rare earth minerals.

For Kent O’Hara, former President of Nissan Energy, and new Samsar board member, this moment validates a long standing personal mission: “At Nissan I saw how hungry the world was for energy and knew that in a few years there was going to be millions of EV batteries that would be headed for recycling. I knew there must be a way to match the need for power with the growing supply. With this milestone Samsar has proven to be the solution – new energy storage from old cars. It’s affordable, sustainable, and built here, in the USA.”

Samsar Resources remanufactures battery packs from Nissan Leaf sedans at its factory outside of Houston, Texas. Samsar’s cost-conscious approach captures 90% of the value of each pack by downsizing to modules and performing cell-level quality control. Nissan Leaf batteries are the perfect fit for this model thanks to their air-cooled pack architecture and well-understood lifetime performance.

This milestone represents a moment of exponential growth for the company. In 2022 only 20 Nissan packs were re-manufactured. By 2025 over 300 packs a year were being disassembled, tested, and rebuilt, Today, half way through 2026 we proudly announce that we have remanufactured 1,000 Nissan Leaf packs (and counting.)

Battery remanufacturing is the practice of disassembling packs, performing quality control on internal components, and refurbishing as needed. EV batteries are replaced when they reach a threshold of remaining capacity (typically in the range of 80% – 90%).

Industry refers to this threshold as “end-of-life” but that moniker can be deceiving. What it means, really, is that this specific battery is no longer useful for this specific context. It doesn’t mean the battery doesn’t have value.

On the contrary, Nissan Leaf batteries that have left their original vehicles have enormous value. In fact, they are coveted among remanufacturing companies for their air-cooled pack architecture and well-understood lifetime performance. That remaining capacity can be used fruitfully for industries like security, marine, or energy storage at work sites. Samsar uses industry-leading remanufacturing methods to capture that value and sell on to the right customer, at the right price.

Leading the team for this milestone is Carlos Contreras, Operations Manager at Samsar’s Sugarland factory. Carlos is a Manufacturing leader with over 18 years of experience managing operational excellence, quality systems, and EHS compliance across production environments.
Certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) and Operational Excellence (OpEx-L), he specializes in establishing sustainable systems, optimizing throughput, and building cross-functional teams in high-growth operations.

Carlos has managed manufacturing operations across multiple industrial sectors. Most recently, as a Manufacturing Engineer in piping solutions, he designed technical systems and streamlined production workflows. Previously, he spent nearly four years as a Senior Production Supervisor in fencing manufacturing, directing 65 employees across three departments to meet safety and quality compliance targets. His earlier background includes frontline management, where he managed plant organization, inventory control, and employee training.

The Samsar team needed three years to remanufacture our first 1,000 battery packs. Now that we’ve grown our team and matured our processes, we expect to hit the 2,000 pack milestone sometime in 2027.

You can follow our journey to remanufacturing at scale, and everything else we’re working on, by joining our email list today. Thanks for being part of the adventure!

Andrew A Jay
Samsar Resources
+1 2062007469
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn

Media gallery