Electra Commercial Vehicles is the latest EV-builder to sign up to the Battery Passport service, which will roll out on all the company’s new vehicles.
Battery Passport is a real-time battery monitoring service that captures information on battery usage in real time, enabling alerts, reporting and a detailed history. It is designed to help vehicle owners extend the in-vehicle lifespan of their batteries, and to provide a pathway for those batteries to be sold into the second-life market when they reach the end of their in-vehicle lives.
The Battery Passport continually assesses and grades the future potential of the battery so that, when the battery nears the end of its vehicle life, the owner can share the Battery Passport with potential second-life buyers, who can use the grade to determine whether a particular battery can fulfil their energy storage requirements.
In the UK, the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations of 2009 make the vehicle manufacturer responsible for the collection and appropriate disposal of EV batteries. Giving a battery a secondary use, which can generate revenue for the vehicle owner, is usually a better option than recycling, which carries costs. Battery Passport allows the second-life market to purchase a battery knowing its full history and future potential.
“As a responsible vehicle manufacturer, Battery Passport enables Electra to meet its battery recycling responsibilities by diverting batteries away from disposal and into the second-life sector,” said Ben Smith, Managing Director of Electra Commercial Vehicles. “Our customers directly benefit from the Battery Passport as it secures the battery’s residual value, providing a better price to the vehicle owner when the battery is sold into the second-life market.”
Sources: Electra Commercial Vehicles, Battery Passport