[RahulNagaraj]

Altelium, a UK-based startup, has come up with a test and certificate to determine the state of health of EV batteries.

The test is said to be launching this year across 7,000 EV car dealers in the USA and 5,000 dealers in the UK via service providers like Assurant & GardX. Alex Johns, Business Development Manager, Altelium, highlighted the importance of these battery health tests by stating, "If the second-hand car market doesn't work properly, the new car market doesn't work properly and the electric transition won't happen."



A battery's health is determined by multiple factors. EV batteries can degrade quickly if rapidly charged too often, charging even when the battery is nearly full or leaving it plugged in for long periods.

Aviloo, an Austrian startup, which has also developed a test for dealers & private individuals found that after 1,00,000 km, EV battery health can vary by up to 30%. It means that a customer looking for second-hand EVs with 90% of its charge when new could end up buying one with just 70% due to the bad charging habits of the previous owner. Marcus Berger, CEO of Aviloo, stated, "With an EV, mileage and age don't tell you anything. It's all about the battery."

Reports state that while carmakers provide in-vehicle EV range information, the data is often excessively rosy, which makes independent tests vital.

Source: Autoblog

Link to Team-BHP news

[airwarrior]

This would be very relevant in India where a large no of EVs and Hybrids are round the corner. There will be a large second hand EV market. Having such a tool would definitely help.

Going through the Aviloo web page, the information obtained indicates that the tool is connected to the OBD2 port and measures the performance over a cycle of full charge to discharge. Data seems to be uploaded to the Company's server and they then issue a status certificate by email.

It would be a great idea for Indian startups to jump into the fray and develop a tool in India to assess EV battery status. I do not think it would take much as most of the battery performance data would already be available through the car's OBD2 port and a good OBD2 reader coupled with some good software would do the job. Atmanirbar.

[NB_4763]

Tool uses the OBD2 Port and after a Full charge and Discharge Cycle the SOH of the pack is identified, Sounds great but is One cycle enough to accurately calculate the State of Health?

[airwarrior]

Originally Posted by NB_4763

Tool uses the OBD2 Port and after a Full charge and Discharge Cycle the SOH of the pack is identified, Sounds great but is One cycle enough to accurately calculate the State of Health?

Since the OB2 port can provide battery condition of both EV and Hybrids I think we could achieve a test of the battery condition using a OBD2 port adapter and Dr Prius/Dr Hybrid Scanning software. Provides a fair amount of detail and even gives a certificate.
Here is a screenshot of Dr Hybrids Demo.
So one could even assess the condition of the battery straight out of the showroom.

[rkv_2401]

Originally Posted by NB_4763

Tool uses the OBD2 Port and after a Full charge and Discharge Cycle the SOH of the pack is identified, Sounds great but is One cycle enough to accurately calculate the State of Health?

Not sure how it's calculated in cars, but in computers, cameras and other devices with "smart" rechargeable batteries, wear is calculated by the chip on the battery regulator. This is done to prevent overcharging a worn-out battery to it's original capacity and potentially ruining the battery/causing physical damage to it, and also dealing with "weak" cells which can't be charged to the same voltage as the "good" cells.

It might be that the full charge and discharge is just to "calibrate" the battery with the chip (a common practice to gauge your battery and ensure accurate reporting of it's capacity while being used, these calibration issues are sometimes the cause of an aging battery to suddenly drop a large amount of %SoC charge within minutes before stabilizing again) and then fetch the latest wear data from the OBD2 port.

[Jeroen]

Are we sure this tool uses the OBD port? Because if it does it just uses data that is already present on board. That would most likely not all that accurate and meaningful.

I am sure that the diagnostic equipment of any EV dealer can read that data. My own handheld OBD analyser will get EV cars added to it on its new software release.

I think in order to do a meaningful test you need to hook up your test equipment directly to the battery, just like you do with a normal battery tester that can measure things like capacity, broken cells, current etc.

Does anybody have some more technical info on this new tool.

Jeroen

[diablo29]

In case of Tata EV’s , they have a Bosch telematics device and which if hacked would be able to give lots of additional info including battery health related data , why I say this because the Kemut app was at one time able to use the Tata Z Connect API and give more info than the Z connect could ever give .