Remarketing
Certificate of authenticity “All the
B
attery state-of-health (SoH) is a real nuisance for the remarketing industry. Used car buyers do not typically worry about whether a petrol or a diesel car will match its original mpg figure, but they want to know if a second-hand EV will reach its original, quoted range or something close to it.
They have started quizzing dealers, and the lack of information – both about the battery itself and generally what is considered an acceptable degree of degradation – can leave salespeople as flummoxed as consumers.
“A dealer who rings me fairly often… said customers are now asking them ‘what is the health of that EV battery?’ and they can’t tell,” says Philip Nothard, insight director at Cox Automotive. “Customers are now saying they don’t know whether 90% is good or bad for a two-year-old car. What does that mean? If I’m looking at a used car, is that a good price for a 90% healthy [battery] or
24 | February 2024 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
a bad price for a 90% healthy one? That measure’s not out there yet.”
Unless you live in Scotland, which offers second-hand EV buyers an interest-free loan of up to £30,000, there is no formal consumer incentive to buy a used plug-in car. New EV sales to fleets are booming (fleet registrations rose by 38.7% in 2023 and EVs were up 17.8% overall), but turbulent used values, misinformation, and dealer buying bans, among other factors, have got the industry worried about who is going to buy them second-hand. It has, however, started to get creative. Leasing companies, auction houses, and retail groups are now monitoring battery SoH, with a view to creating a certification scheme to illustrate the remaining battery capacity of used EVs to boost confidence among buyers. Business Car understands several industry heavyweights are conducting trials to independently measure SoH and create an initiative akin to a used
companies are testing different things, which is where we are hitting a brick wall at the minute.”
Monitoring trials are underway to create confidence in battery longevity for used EV buyers. Jack Carfrae reports.
approved car scheme or an HPI check for second-hand EVs with a high level of remaining battery capacity, likely a minimum of 85-90%.
The aim is to provide transparency, foster uptake among used car buyers, and counter misinformation about EVs by providing assurance that second-hand examples are credible ownership prospects with a realistic degree of longevity. The data is typically gathered from OBD, 12-volt, and USB sockets and companies such as Altelium, Aviloo Gmbh, ClearWatt, and Moba specialise in the practice. Telematics firms Targa Telematics and Bridgestone Mobility Solutions, which owns Webfleet, have also confirmed to Business Car that they and their contemporaries are specifically monitoring SoH.
“It’s something that we’re looking at,” says Shaun Sadlier, head of consultancy at leasing firm Arval UK, “with the second-hand market and the retail buyer in mind, we need to find a way to give
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