Electra Commercial Vehicles has announced it has signed up to the Battery Passport service, which will roll out on all of the company’s vehicles as they come off the production line. Battery Passport will enable vehicle owners to understand their batteries better and provide a pathway for those batteries to be sold into the second-life market when they reach the end of their vehicle life.
‘As a responsible manufacturer, Battery Passport enables Electra to meet its battery recycling responsibilities by diverting batteries away from disposal and into the second-life sector. Our customers directly benefit from the Battery Passport as it secures the batteries residual value, providing a better price to the vehicle owner when the battery is sold into the second-life market,’ commented Ben Smith, Managing Director, Electra Commercial Vehicles.
Battery Passport is a real-time battery monitoring service that provides the vehicle owner’s recommendations towards extending the in-vehicle lifespan of the cell. Battery Passport is continually assessing and grading the future potential of the battery. When the battery is nearing the end of its vehicle life, the owner can share the Battery Passport with the second-life market who use the grade to determine whether it can fulfil their energy storage requirements.
The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, make the vehicle manufacturer responsible for the collection and appropriate disposal of electric vehicle batteries, therefore giving a battery a secondary use is better than recycling which itself is costly and inefficient.
Battery Passport enables the second-life market to purchase the battery knowing its full history and future potential, generating revenue for the vehicle owner. Battery Passport has been developed by CodeSmith Technology, a telematics and fleet management software provider in partnership with Warwick Control Technologies, a vehicle networking specialist, to facilitate getting used electric vehicle batteries into energy storage solutions such as powering schools and homes.
