October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 AFTERMARKET 25 (SoH) answers all these questions. Battery state of health is described as the current capacity of your battery as a percentage of its original capacity. When I oversaw the trial of five Tesla electric taxis stationed at Gatwick Airport in 2019, before I joined Altelium, each vehicle had 300,000 miles on the clock when the trial concluded after three years, but the batteries were still at 82% state of health (SoH). They were still working really well with many years life left in them. There is no question over the quality of the batteries, but we were given clear guidelines on how to use them and charge them. Battery health How can this help to advice EVs drivers on how to best maintain battery heart health in their cars? First, fast charging on DC chargers should be no more than 30% of all charging. Charging has a large impact on battery health so try to charge at home wherever possible, using a household plug or A/C slow-medium rate charger. Secondly, it is important to try not to let a battery run completely flat. It is best to keep it in the middle range as much as possible where the chemicals in the battery are held at optimal conditions. A car battery computer will be set to do this as far as possible, but drivers can certainly help by not running it down completely. Additionally, if someone finds they are running a battery all the time, for example in a taxi role or delivery operation, then let it rest – not charging or driving – once a week at a moderate state of charge (30-50%). This allows the battery cells to rest. Although this is not the place to explain in full, information is available online from electro-chemists about what this allows a battery to do internally - and you could certainly suggest that as something EV drivers might want to read up on. Another good tip is to keep electric cars in the shade on sunny days. The optimal temperature for a battery is at 21-21.5 0 C and extreme heat or cold will really impact the range of that electric car battery. While extreme cold will reduce battery performance, the effect of heat is more important from a health and longevity point of view. For more information, visit: www.altelium.com Few owners know how to keep the battery heart of their cars in good health ” Altelium uses battery data to facilitate second life uses to electric vehicle batteries, for example in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), through warranties and operational data analytics. Altelium believes good battery management and understanding is the key to maximising the life of batteries and the environmental credentials of electric vehicles.