While most are opting for EV battery recycling at end of life, one UK business is already working with automotive OEMs to repair and remanufacture faulty battery packs, extracting maximum value out of resources. Autocraft EV Solutions has recently developed its new mobile repair facility for EV batteries and will be conducting a European launch of the technology in Amsterdam later this month. Autocraft’s Revive Mobile Repair Centre is fully-equipped to test and remanufacture up to 2,000 battery packs per year will make its European debut at the Rematec automotive remanufacturing exhibition between June 27-29.
Housed within a 30ft ISO footprint expandable container, the Revive Mobile Repair Centre is transportable and contains off-grid facilities that allow Autocraft to bring its full EV battery diagnostics wherever its needed. This helps to reduce the environmental impact and logistical hurdles associated with long distance transportation of large volumes of EV batteries.
Each Revive Mobile Repair Centre is designed to provide a full range of EV battery services, including pack integrity safety check using patented Autocraft State-of-Health test equipment, patented dynamic test methodology, fault identification and repair planning, pack discharge and disassembly, and module replacement and pack re-assembly. Replacing faulty modules with healthy ones returns the pack to optimal performance by reversing the effects of cyclical aging. This enables OEMs to maximise the longevity of each battery, a crucial step in the automotive industry’s circularity efforts.
“When most people think about the circular economy, they imagine recycling as the logical next step,” said Mike Hague-Morgan, Executive Director at Autocraft. “The environmental benefits of maximising EV battery longevity are actually far greater, and we believe the automotive industry has a duty to maximise the lifespan of EVs to ensure they remain in use for as long as possible. Recycling should therefore be seen as a last resort, to be used only when all other avenues to repair have been exhausted.
“Most EV batteries contain several modules, each containing the cells which store energy. These cells operate in a series circuit which means that one faulty cell can make an entire module unusable. Our team of engineers have shown that we can repair an EV battery from as low as 10% operational capacity right up to 90% by just repairing one or two modules.”
Hague-Morgan believes the new technology could hold the key to establishing permanent British-owned Revive Mobile Repair Centres in strategic locations around the globe, rapidly scaling up new centres in a matter of weeks.
