Battery Health Check CARA Approved®

Introduction

The CARA Battery Health workgroup is established to create common standards to facilitate remarketing and support residual values of used cars through trust in the battery of a BEV, easily to be communicated to buyers, by an independent assessment and certification.

The workgroup aims to deliver what follows:

  • Facilitate remarketing and support residual values of used BEV cars
  • Provide buyers’ confidence in the battery
  • Provide a clear and comprehensive presentation of the result
  • Establish an independent assessment and certification process Deliverables
  • Set the standard for a State of Health (SOH) Measurement (CARA Approved Battery Health Check ®) for the remarketing industry in Europe
  • Evaluate technology and process possibilities for vehicle individual battery assessment
  • Review, validate and real-life test technologies for obtaining SOH data
  • Propose a settlement process in case of disputes of buyers (warranty management; not in Scope of Step one)

Service Providers

AVILOO GmbH was granted the Certification Mark Battery Health Check CARA Approved® on 24 May 2023 for the AVILOO Flash Test.

Moba was granted the Certification Mark Battery Health Check CARA Approved® on 22 May 2023 for the Moba Certify Pro.

Laika Lab srl (Power Cruise Control) was granted the Certification Mark Battery Health Check CARA Approved® on 8 February 2024 for the PKC – Power checK Control.

Provider Applications

Providers applying to become certified under the scheme must demonstrate that their system solution can cover multiple requirements. The requirements and process are layed out in the Regulation of Use.

Companies wishing to apply to become a provider, must complete and submit the provider application to the CARA Board.

  1. Regulation of Use
  2. Provider Application (Basic Test)
  3. Market Coverage
  4. Process

General motivation for the CARA Battery Health Check Scheme

To foster the acceptance of used electric vehicles and to support our members in the successful transition towards a carbon neutral fleet the possibility to understand the aging of traction batteries and the influence on the residual value is crucial. Given that fact the society is facing one of the biggest transformations of mobility and the knowledge we all have gained throughout the last decades is not entirely valid anymore we are facing restraints.

We are facing restraints of buying a used electric vehicle (EV) not only due to the changes in terms of re- “fuelling”. We are also facing restraints as the new energy source is forcing us to re-think experiences, we made over decades, and which are sometimes inherited, like the classical mileage-quality relation of cars with internal combustion engines, be it Diesel or petrol.

Given the high number of uncertainties the acceptance of used electric vehicles highly depends on the trust of private individuals in the second and third lifecycle. To foster this adoption a clear and transparent communication of the battery conditions is crucial, on the one hand to find acceptance of the buyers to purchase a used EV, but also to protect the residual values of these cars. The Battery Health Check CARA Approved Certification Scheme aims to give a clear and transparent overview of today’s possibilities to answer the uncertainties the mobility change brings in a structured and standardized and doable approach in the field of remarketing.

Due to the development of the market, both on remarketing side and the technical development of tests for the Battery health, the dedicated CARA Workgroup Battery Health has decided to move in a two-phase approach to establish the “Battery Health Check CARA Approved”® label in the Market.

Phase one starting in 2023 will be a certification of basic solutions that read out the Battery State of Health from the Battery Management System. Directly or calculating values available in the system. It is not an OEM independent measurement, but it is available and has a chance to start active usage in near future,

In step two, the CARA Workgroup will continue to develop a certification scheme for an OEM independent test of the battery, the Premium Test. It is planned to release the requirements for this certification by End of 2023.

Definition of the types of “Battery Health Check CARA Approved”

Basic

The Basic BHC will show a “State of Health” of the traction battery in % with relation to the type approved usable battery energy. This SOH is generated by and/or calculated from the vehicles own system like Battery Management System, and to be obtained from a diagnostic tool that reads out the data from the vehicle. Further assumptions can be made using algorithms or comparing vehicle or battery data with external databases but must be specified during the testing process. During this test, the battery will not be stressed (charging / discharging) and the vehicle in question must not be driven to obtain the test result.

Additional data can be provided such as initial WLTP range and consumption but shall correspond to the information in the Certificate of Conformity (CoC).

In the future, there should be an indication beyond the display of the percentage SOH that enables an evaluation of the general condition as well as the user behaviour, as it affects battery ageing. Providing such information will be advantageous for providers in the competition but will not be part yet of the 2023 certification process.

It should be noted that the Basic test is not an independent assessment of the battery health, as it refers to the OEM generated data in the BMS.

Premium

The Premium BHC will show a “State of Health” of the traction battery in % with relation to the type approved usable battery energy, which is generated by an external and independent test method that uses data from the vehicle but also stresses the battery by means of charging, discharging, or driving or engaging vehicle internal consumers (like heating or air condition). The result does not rely on the vehicles own BMS estimated SOH and hence is obtained by algorithms and calculations done by the provider.

Additional data can be provided such as initial WLTP range and consumption but shall correspond to the information in the CoC.

Due to the development of available technologies and coverage of the market of used BEV, CARA will define the Premium BHC requirements in the 2024 edition of this document. For 2023, a CARA certification of the Premium BHC is not planned.

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