Battery packs are made from a large number of parts. Often it is not the battery cells that fail and hence a repair or replacement of the failed part is logical.
One of the first steps is diagnosing what has failed or is failing. This might be in a number of ways:
- customer impact
- range / power / charging time
- doesn’t always switch on
- errors displayed
- vehicle / system level diagnostics
- vehicle ECU error codes
- BMS errors and battery pack data
- external testing
- internal / sub-system testing
The next stage is fixing that fault. Again, this might be done in a number of ways from software updates through to complete pack replacement.
Replacing a module / set of cells in a battery pack can have a number of challenges.
4R’s Repair, Reman, Repurpose, Recycle
Before moving to the recycling of a battery the following options should be considered:
- Repair
- Remanufacture
- Repurpose
- Recycling
This approach can reduce cost, impact on the customer and most importantly the impact on the planet.
Batteries are not emissions and toxic waste free and so the life cycle analysis (LCA) must be considered from cradle to grave.