How EV logistics is powering the new battery landscape

But the hard part isn’t only the handling. It’s that the battery economy itself is expanding. The same cells that power EVs are now being used in trucks, mining, construction sites and the electricity grid. Industries that once had little overlap now depend on the same demanding piece of cargo.

That’s where EV logistics starts to become logistics for the battery-powered econo my. Five years after launching our dedicated EV logistics team, we at DHL support customers across the entire electrified value chain.

Electric cars may be the most familiar face of electrification, but they’re no longer the whole story. Commercial fleets are going electric. Mining and construction equipment manufacturers are developing battery-powered machinery. Renewable energy projects are also becoming increasingly dependent on storage systems that can hold power when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing. At the same time, data centers are increasingly relying on battery energy storage systems (BESS) to support power resilience and manage growing energy demand, particularly as AI-driven workloads place greater pressure on the energy infrastructure.

This isn’t about one industry changing in isolation. It’s a wider New Energy ecosystem taking shape across transport, energy, manufacturing and infrastruc ture. And that ecosystem needs logistics that can keep up.

For logistics providers, this changes the task. It’s no longer only about moving EV batteries from A to B. It’s about understanding how batteries move through different industries, regulations, transport modes, and use cases.

Over the past five years, we’ve built a global network of battery logistics experts, and more than 20 EV Centers of Excellences to support exactly this shift. These centers bring together specialists across regions and business units to support customers with battery transport, warehousing, regulatory compliance, safety requirements and end-to-end supply chain design.

We support this part of the value chain through Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Project Logistics, which involves the planning, transportation, storage and handling of the equipment, materials and infrastructure required for major investment projects such as gigafactories, including the movement of machinery, cranes and other construction equipment, as well as specialized battery chemical flows through bulk logistics. In practice, that means supporting customers before a battery even exists as a finished product.

The dangerous goods classification affects how batteries are packed, documented, stored and transported. And every mode of transport brings different requirements.

In ocean freight, batteries may spend weeks in transit. Stability matters, especially when products are sensitive to temperature and humidity. To address this, we developed a Thermoliner solution in-house to support temperature and humidity control during ocean transport.

Air freight raises the stakes in a different way. Larger batteries require strict safety measures, especially above certain weight thresholds. We introduced fire-containment covers for batteries weighing more than 35 kilograms in air freight, alongside temperature-mitigation solutions for sensitive battery shipments.

Both capabilities were developed around practical customer needs: how to move, store and monitor batteries safely in a market where standard logistics processes are no longer enough.

Where battery shipments are headed has changed just as much. A battery shipment can now mean a chemical moving in bulk, battery components, cells, modules or battery packs traveling to a gigafactory, a residential battery energy storage system (BESS), a commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage system, or a containerized unit for a utility-scale energy storage project. Each flow has its own logistics model. Nowhere is this clearer than in battery energy storage systems (BESS).

BESS isn’t a single market. Residential systems often involve distributed, high-volume movement: warehousing, inventory management, delivery coordination and, in some cases, links to installation networks. This is an area where our scale and experience in managing complex distribution flows can play an important role.

Larger BESS systems bring added complexity. They can involve customized requirements, heavy-lift or multimodal transport, site coordination and close planning with multiple partners. From a household battery to a 50-ton energy storage system, the product category may be the same. The logistics model is not.

The journey doesn’t end at the destination. As more batteries enter the market, they may need to be returned, inspected, repaired, reused, repurposed or recycled. Valuable materials may also need to be recovered and reintegrated into future production. This adds another la yer of complexity to the battery economy.

Reverse logistics, aftermarket services, and end-of-life flows are becoming central to electrified value chains. For us, this is an important part of the shift toward a more circular battery supply chain.

Our broader ambition is to support a “cradle to cradle” battery journey: from raw materials and components to gigafactory logistics, distribution, energy storage, aftermarket services, reverse logistics, and recycling.