German start-up offers programme to gauge residual value of e-car batteries

A start-up from Munich has developed a programme that could help e-car producers to massively improve their assessment of the residual value of used car batteries, Henning Peitsmeier writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The start-up called Twaice offers a "detailed look into the inside of a battery" and allows users to gauge its remaining lifetime and value. The functionality of a battery is heavily influenced by the way it is used and quickly diminishes if e-car drivers are frequently speeding, often use fast chargers or expose their vehicle to great differences in temperature, which lets a battery lose its capabilities more quickly. "But you can't see that from the outside," company co-founder Stephan Rohr told the newspaper. The battery is often an e-car's most valuable component, so a better evaluation of its proper functioning would be significantly useful for operators of large e-car fleets to improve maintenance or for used car dealers to calculate what an e-car is worth, Peitsmeier writes. According to the company, which already cooperates with Germany's Technical Inspection Authority (TÜV), the technology is useful beyond e-cars and could help to also improve the performance of large storage facilities and of renewable power installations.

Given the German government's aim to put 10 million e-cars on the road by 2030 and plans by the country's carmakers to greatly expand their e-car product portfolio, the question of how to efficiently deal with used car batteries is becoming more pressing. The government recently published a draft amendment to the country’s battery law aimed at improving battery recycling but waste management officials and recycling companies say it does not go far enough.