Do you have (or are you thinking about) getting electric vehicles in your fleet? Then this FAQ is just for you! Get all the answers on EV battery health management and how telematics is the secret tool to keep your EV fleet running at optimal levels for longer!
You’ll be able to tell if an EV battery is bad if you're experiencing significantly shorter driving ranges after each charge. Additionally if your vehicle is taking longer to charge, has weaker acceleration, or has unexpected power dips.
You can keep your EV battery healthy by doing the following:
To test your EV battery health, you should:
The general consensus around when you should replace the batteries in your EV is when degradation is more than 20-30% and is affecting your driving range, or if a diagnostics test shows that they have unrepairable damage.
Only certain vehicle models in specific markets offer a lifetime high-voltage battery warranty. The two main companies that offer this are Tata Motors and MG Motor, so it’s a feature that’s only available in India and Thailand.
No, telematics systems won’t significantly drain the battery of an EV. Modern telematics and GPS systems, like the one from Cartrack, are designed to use very little power from your vehicle, so having them installed shouldn’t make any noticeable difference to your battery life.
Cartrack’s telematics assists with EV battery health by giving you real-time battery and vehicle monitoring, predictive analytics and maintenance and comprehensive driver behaviour insights. All of these features will help you keep your EV fleet fully optimised.
With Cartrack, the cost for telematics on your EV won’t necessarily cost more, but if your EV is a heavy-duty truck or requires specialised sensors, then it can affect the cost. The main things that affect the cost are the number of vehicles you’re signing up for, what features you need, what additional hardware you need, and the length of your contract.
No, you don’t need to charge your electric vehicle every single day. It’s best to keep your EV charged between 20% and 80%, as this is the best rate for keeping your battery lasting for longer.
Having an EV with an 80% battery health isn’t necessarily a bad percentage, but it’s on the lower end of what is considered a "good" battery percentage. Any lower than 80% you might see significant performance issues with your EV.
Yes, it’s worth buying a second-hand EV because it’ll be much cheaper compared to a new one. However, DO NOT buy one without an SoH battery report, because replacing batteries on an EV is one of the most expensive components.
To an extent, yes, EV batteries can be repaired ; it all just depends on the extent of the damage. Skilled technicians can, if possible, repair a single component of the battery to fix an issue, which is cheaper than replacing the whole thing. However, this is completely dependent on the diagnostic results.
