Overcoming barriers to supply chain collaboration in second-life electric vehicle batteries: Evidence from the US-Mexico electric vehicle supply chain
Academic Article in Scopus
The second-life application of electric vehicle batteries (EVBs) has gained increasing attention within the circular economy (CE), reducing reliance on critical raw materials (CRMs) and emphasizing the importance of supply chain collaboration (SCC). Despite its potential, effective collaboration remains challenging, as stakeholders with differing interests and motivations often struggle to align objectives and engage in cooperative processes. Given its geographical proximity to the United States (US) and strong industrial integration, Mexico has become a critical supply chain (SC) partner in electric vehicles (EVs). Consequently, the US-Mexico context provides a relevant setting for examining challenges in SCC. Unlike prior study that focus on barriers and strategies to SCC within vague and unclear CE framework in Indian manufacturing context, this research offers a comprehensive analysis based on the expanded 10Rs CE framework in the US-Mexico SC context. This study developed a structured decision-support framework to prioritize collaboration barriers and identify effective strategies, providing clear and visually grounded insights into critical challenges and their strategic alignment. The findings indicate that ¿insufficient technical expertise in battery handling and recycling¿ is the most critical barrier, while ¿joint practice strategies¿ are the most effective strategy for overcoming the challenges. To the best of our knowledge, this study is first to empirically integrate barrier identification and strategy evaluation of SCC within the EVBs second-life domain in the US-Mexico SC context. It further introduces the visual decision-support tools and offers actionable insights for policymakers, managers, and investors operating within the US-Mexico EVBs logistics and transportation sector.
