Remarketing
Re-make/re-model E
lectric car maintenance is a whopper of a catch 22. Yes, the things have fewer wearable parts, so there is less to go wrong and – although it is a generalisation – they typically undercut ICE equivalents on SMR costs.
Things do not look so rosy if the battery goes wrong, though, and while a seven or eight- year warranty should really be enough to allay some fears, the perceived costs, time and effort involved in repairs are scary for a manufacturer honouring the warranty or a fleet contemplating vehicle-off-road time. It is, after all, one of the pinch points for misinformation about EVs and among the reasons why they cost more to insure and are quickly written off (search for our September 2024 feature ‘Cover Charge’ on
Businesscar.co.uk for more).
Fortunately, failure rates are low. Based on a sample of 15,000 EV drivers and not including recalls or accident damage, Cox Automotive’s nascent EV Battery Solutions arm reported in-warranty failure rates of between 1.3% and 3.1%, depending on the type of battery, and out-of-warranty rates of 2.6%
26 | March/April 2025 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
to 7%. The DVSA’s average MOT failure rate for July to September 2024 was 27.7%, so batteries look pretty good by comparison.
The new Cox business is part of a tie-up with DHL to establish a 35,000-square-foot battery repair and manufacturing centre at the latter company’s site in Rugby. It is believed to be the UK’s biggest such facility and follows equivalent Cox operations in the US and Europe. The service is designed for fleets and manufacturers, will deal with batteries within and outside the warranty period and tap into DHL’s logistics abilities to transport them. A major international company throwing its heft behind battery repairs suggests they must be worthwhile but, as with all things EV, the reality is not black and white.
“It depends on the pack – there’s no uniformity,” explains David Gray, client director at the new Cox business, speaking at the Vehicle Remarketing Association’s first meeting of the year, “it comes back to the economics of the repair. Do you have access to the available parts and who’s going to carry the liabilities associated with that pack being back in use?”
The feasibility of battery repairs varies enormously by manufacturer but moves to scale up fixes could improve EV economics. Jack Carfrae reports.
He admits that batteries are generally becoming more difficult – though not impossible – to repair, as manufacturers engineer them to the most cost- effective and marketable standards but claims there is appetite to fix them and that repairs are “viable”. “What happens if a recall event comes around and you need to deal with 50,000-plus packs to get them fixed and back on the market before a household-name brand is thinking about a buyback of those vehicles, with massive cost implications? Major EV insurers are already talking to us about how to reduce costs by offering repairability of the pack for extension of its first life.
“It doesn’t work for all battery technologies or for all types of damage, but there are instances now where we can carry out viable, economic repairs that will allow dealers to retrieve cars into saleable condition. It’s within reach. Our belief is that this situation will improve quite quickly. However, it must be pointed out that a repairable battery design tends to be a more expensive one, and the technology used by some manufacturers creates issues.”
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