As an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), your customers are most likely to encounter battery issues that may require a warranty repair. If not managed properly, this can lead to customer dissatisfaction and increase the cost of servicing. So, the most important step for OEM’s is to evaluate in a scientific way the battery health at any given time and efficiently manage the warranty procedure when it’s time. The Key considerations here should be, that you should be able to accurately:
Detect and predict battery aging & degradation accurately
That is to identify devices that are most at risk of being returned due to a defective battery. The two main factors that affect battery life are aging and degradation. Aging is caused by the chemical reactions inside the cells which are a function of time only and cannot be accelerated or slowed down. Degradation is caused by external factors such as charging rate, discharging rate, temperature, vibrations, etc. Degradation can be accelerated or slowed down by changing these external factors over time.
Detect and evaluate RUL
Calculating the remaining useful life of a battery is not easy. In fact, it’s one of the most challenging problems. The reason is that there are so many different factors that affect battery life and performance, and they all interact with each other. In spite of this complexity, a good analytics platform would be able to accurately predict the remaining useful life of a battery under all possible operating conditions by acutely monitoring, capturing and processing the battery data over a period of time. This will allow an OEM to maintain their batteries, extend their useful life and make better use of warranty programs.
Detect Pack Misuse
Continuous overcharging or undercharging, Measuring DoD over a time lap, will enable to visualize the pack handling, thus would help you reject illegitimate battery claims. You can also offer routine maintenance & repair services on raw data that you capture.
Control pack configurations e.g., threshold/release voltage over the air
With the increasing popularity of electric vehicles, battery repair and replacement services are expected to grow considerably over the near future. This monetizing opportunity can only be availed, if your batteries are remotely monitored & connected. You can offer extended warranties of 24+ months with these.
Dedicated web-based system for managing battery warranties
From the system administrator’s point of view, it also allows monitoring warranty expiries on a monthly basis and also provides some useful information
Companies providing Battery Intelligence and analytics services to Vehicle OEMs, battery manufacturers, EV Fleets and other businesses in the electromobility sector such as iRasus tracks the state of health of each e-vehicle battery in your fleet and gives you access to real-time predictive analytics from their dashboard. This helps to manage the risk and optimize cost of ownership, while gaining customer satisfaction.
Algorithmic solutions as such predicts residual battery capacity and it’s state of health through its various stage of lifecycle providing a cost-effective and objective approach towards better and improved warranty management, improving customer satisfaction and reducing the likelihood of unexpected expenses related to premature battery degradation.
