Photo: Audi
Ever wondered what happens to all the batteries in our electric cars once the vehicle reaches the end of its service life? Here’s the ultimate inspector that decides whether they get a second chance at life or not.
In the world of electric mobility, Audi’s new software is a God that decides the fate of the batteries in just a matter of minutes. The car maker's new analysis software is called BattMAN ReLife and Volkswagen plans to start using it first at its Volkswagen Group Components pilot plant in Salzgitter, Germany.
What the software does is quickly analyze the batteries in just a few minutes, sorting them into three categories, depending on their condition. According to Axel Vanden Branden, Quality Engineer at Audi Brussels, all the important parameters of a cell are measured and a traffic light system indicates their status, with green meaning a cell is still in good order, yellow meaning further inspection is recommended, and red meaning the cell is out of order.
The best-case scenario is for the battery to be reprocessed and reused as a replacement part for an electric car after undergoing repair work.
Another option is to use batteries that are still in a medium-level state for use outside electric vehicles. For instance, a battery could be repurposed for mobile charging robots, forklifts, driverless transportation systems, and more.
In the third and the gloomiest of the scenarios, unlucky, worn-out batteries get to still do some good in this world by being efficiently recycled at the aforementioned pilot plant. Unrecoverable, fatigued batteries are dismantled back to their basic materials, such as copper, aluminum, plastics, and that “black powder” which contains their most useful components: lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, manganese. These materials are going to be recycled and used to supply VW’s future cell production, with the company claiming recycled batteries are just as effective as new ones.
What the software does is quickly analyze the batteries in just a few minutes, sorting them into three categories, depending on their condition. According to Axel Vanden Branden, Quality Engineer at Audi Brussels, all the important parameters of a cell are measured and a traffic light system indicates their status, with green meaning a cell is still in good order, yellow meaning further inspection is recommended, and red meaning the cell is out of order.
The best-case scenario is for the battery to be reprocessed and reused as a replacement part for an electric car after undergoing repair work.
Another option is to use batteries that are still in a medium-level state for use outside electric vehicles. For instance, a battery could be repurposed for mobile charging robots, forklifts, driverless transportation systems, and more.
In the third and the gloomiest of the scenarios, unlucky, worn-out batteries get to still do some good in this world by being efficiently recycled at the aforementioned pilot plant. Unrecoverable, fatigued batteries are dismantled back to their basic materials, such as copper, aluminum, plastics, and that “black powder” which contains their most useful components: lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, manganese. These materials are going to be recycled and used to supply VW’s future cell production, with the company claiming recycled batteries are just as effective as new ones.
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