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No tyre, no problem: James Bruton rides on a sphere
by Kim Muntinga
This electric car runs on batteries from e-cigarettes
10.3.2026
Translation: machine translated
Chris Doel uses what others throw away in electric cars. The British engineer and YouTuber has built a complete vehicle battery from discarded disposable e-cigarettes. He proves that electronic waste is roadworthy.
Chris Doel is no ordinary handyman. On his YouTube channel, the 29-year-old Brit has been documenting for years how wasteful society is with resources. He proves with tangible projects that electronic waste can do much more than rot in a landfill site. He has already used discarded batteries to power an e-bike, built a fast-charging powerbank and constructed a powerwall that supplies his entire house with electricity.
Now he has raised the bar even higher: He is using a Reva G-Wiz, a compact electric car from the early 2000s, as his base. This was originally equipped with a heavy lead-acid battery system. Doel completely replaced this battery with a self-built battery pack made from 500 lithium cells, which he obtained from discarded disposable e-cigarettes.
The initial situation: millions of batteries in waste
The declared aim behind the project is not just of a technical nature: Doel wants to raise awareness of the potential dangers of disposable vapes. In the UK alone, over a million of them were thrown away every day in some cases.
Source: @Chris_Doel / YouTube
The situation in Germany is hardly any better. According to German environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe, around 60 million of these e-cigarettes are disposed of every year. In Switzerland, almost all of the more than ten million disposable vapes used each year end up as waste.
The real problem lies in the product design. Many disposable e-cigarettes contain high-quality lithium-ion cells that could theoretically survive hundreds of charging cycles, but are disposed of after just a few days of use due to the product design. The built-in circuit boards draw small amounts of energy even after the end of use, eventually rendering the battery unusable. Technically speaking, these cells are comparable to those in smartphones or laptops. Nevertheless, they end up in the bin after a short period of use.
Hundreds of hours of manual labour
Doel collected the discarded e-cigarettes from special recycling containers over a period of several months. He had to carefully remove each individual cell from its plastic casing and test its remaining charge capacity. In doing so, he faced a fundamental problem: there is no quick method to assess the condition of the batteries at a glance. Doel used an unusual trick: he used a disused CPAP ventilator to blow air through the mouthpiece of the vape. If the device responded, the battery was still intact.
Source: @Chris_Doel / YouTube
Each battery had to be tested individually, as many cells were discharged below the safe limit of three volts, rendering them unusable. The functional batteries were labelled by hand and grouped according to their remaining capacity. Only those with at least five watt hours of remaining capacity made it through; Doel sorted out the smaller 1.8 Wh cells.
The 500 or so cells used came entirely from an earlier project: Doel had already built a Powerwall from them and had now repurposed the storage system for the electric car.
Assembly: from vape waste to vehicle battery
After the complex selection process, the actual construction work began. Doel bundled the remaining batteries into groups of nine with 3D printed brackets, similar to those used in electric vehicle battery packs. Copper tape and nickel strips ensured even current distribution.
Source: @Chris_Doel / YouTube
A specially installed battery management system monitored the charging cycles and protected against overheating. This is an absolute necessity for such self-builds, as incorrectly connected lithium-ion cells can quickly catch fire. By connecting the cells in series and parallel, the engineer achieved exactly the 48 volts required by the Reva G-Wiz's electric motor.
Another remarkable feature of the system is that the battery can be charged via USB-C.
Source: @Chris_Doel / YouTube
The result on the road
The first practical test delivered convincing figures. The vehicle achieved a range of over 27 kilometres and a top speed of more than 56 km/h. The system delivered 2.07 kWh of usable energy from a theoretical capacity of 2.5 kWh, while temperatures remained below 30 degrees Celsius
Source: @Chris_Doel / YouTube
Header image: @Chris_doel / YouTube
My interests are varied, I just like to enjoy life. Always on the lookout for news about darts, gaming, films and series.
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