As electric vehicles enter the used market, pressure is growing on manufacturers and sellers to provide detailed information on their battery health so that purchasers know what they're buying.
Factors affecting it include unit age, high temperatures, operating at high and low states of charge, and high electric current and usage (energy cycles). Variations in battery chemistry, thermal management and buffer limits (the cap a manufacturer places on the top and bottom ends of a battery's charging range) also affect battery health.
Market analyst Autovista Group recently published a report outlining how, without information on these factors, residual value data on electric cars will become harder to calculate with certainty. Published in partnership with battery analytics specialist Twaice, it said that how an electric car is charged and driven over the first eight to 10 years of its life has a major impact on its driving range and suggested that a battery health report could add £400 to the value of a three-year-old C-segment electric vehicle.
A spokesperson for Twaice said: “Many people underestimate the impact of battery treatment. At the three-year point with 28,000 miles on the clock, a battery that has been poorly treated will perform worse on a promised range by about 5%. This gap will only increase because battery quality, once lost, cannot be recovered.”
Derren Martin, director of valuations at CAP HPI, said battery health will become an issue for car buyers: “If your neighbour buys an identical car to you but the battery health and range of your car is 10% less, you would want to have paid less for it.” He claimed, however, that vehicle manufacturers are reluctant to share battery health data: “It’s not something that most OEMs are happy to provide. There is a suggestion that we might need legislation to be passed to ensure that data is shared."
Sara Ridley, engineering and quality director at Autocraft Solutions Group, a battery manufacturing and repair company, said pressure for battery data to be made more available is growing. "Monitoring battery health is becoming important," she said. "Owners will need to be able to have either permanent diagnostics fitted to their vehicle or be able to go to a dealer to have a device fitted that will monitor their battery's performance, with the data analysed at the next visit."
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