2035 EV Battery Negotiations

03 Oct 2026
11:30am - 12:30pm
FREE
Building 94, 23/27 Cardigan Street Carlton (094.01.006)

What happens to your EV battery when it dies? In 2035, millions of Australians will be asking that question. The 2035 EV Battery Negotiations is a live-action role-play workshop where you become the policymaker, recycler, or household trying to solve it. Come negotiate the future of Australia's battery economy.

Australia is on the cusp of an electric vehicle (EV) revolution – but nobody is talking about what happens when the batteries run out.

By 2035, millions of end-of-life EV batteries will need somewhere to go. The infrastructure, policies, and systems to manage them at scale don't yet exist. And the people who need to solve it, households, recyclers, manufacturers, policymakers, and community advocates, rarely share the same room, let alone the same vision of what a solution looks like.

The 2035 EV Battery Negotiations is an immersive, live-action role-play workshop that drops you into a simulated 2035 Australia facing a critical battery waste crisis and asks you to negotiate your way out of it.

On arrival, you will be assigned a role and handed a brief, a set of resources, and a stack of simulated currency. As a household sitting on dead batteries with nowhere to send them, a recycler with capacity but no contracts, a manufacturer under pressure to take responsibility, a policymaker balancing competing interests, or a community advocate pushing for a just outcome, you will need to strike deals, design incentives, and build a system that works for everyone.

Developed by researchers from RMIT's Regenerative Futures Institute and part of RMIT's City North Shared Futures Festival, this live action role play draws on participatory action research and serious games methodology to approach one of Australia's most pressing environmental challenges.

No prior knowledge of EVs, batteries, or policy is required. Just bring your curiosity, your willingness to negotiate, and your appetite for a challenge that actually matters.

Register

This event is part of the Energy Futures events season presented by the RMIT Regenerative Futures Institute and part of RMIT's City North Shared Futures Festival.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples