Market launch for professional High Voltage Battery Diagnostics in Automotive Workshops

Ihringen, 31 August 2023. The value and range of an electric vehicle (BEV) rise and fall with the condition of the traction battery. The high-priced power packs are part of the e-vehicle underbody and cannot simply be replaced. Thus, knowing their real state of health (SoH) is of considerable interest to retailers, workshops, insurers, banks, fleet operators and, last but not least, vehicle owners. The battery data stored in the vehicle systems do not provide a reliable basis for this. On the other hand, an objective, metrologically determined battery assessment was very costly and the domain of specialists up to recently. In the future, it will be sufficient to go to an independent automotive workshop.

In a strategic partnership Battery Quick Check GmbH, a joint venture of TWAICE and TÜV Rheinland, and diagnostics specialist Hella Gutmann Solutions have developed an evaluation procedure that is both reliable and suitable for workshops. Workshops that operate a mega macs X diagnostic device in configuration X2 or higher will have the function available automatically and without additional supply fees from software version 71 (activation mid-September 2023). Further technical requirements are only a smart AC high-voltage charging station* and Internet access.

The Battery Quick Check runs in an overall process certified by TÜV Rheinland. This does not require any driving cycles and takes place stationary in the workshop during a partial charging process. After connecting the mega macs X and the charging cable to the vehicle, the battery diagnosis is started in the newly added mega macs menu point. After that, no further manual intervention is required. Depending on the vehicle, the process is completed independently in around 90 minutes.

The collected battery data is continuously transferred via a defined API (application interface) to the cloud service of Battery Quick Check GmbH. In the other direction, the charger's characteristic diagrams are controlled remotely from there. The highly complex analysis is based on the comparison of the measured data with individual laboratory data. Ultimately, the information about the SoH and other key data is summarized in a comprehensive HV battery status report that can be downloaded and printed out via the Hella Gutmann service portal macs365. The end customer can verify the authenticity of the certificate and the correct assignment to the vehicle via the included QR code. Thus, the Battery Quick Check via the HV Battery Diagnostics PRO provides a traceable basis for expert opinions and monetary vehicle valuations.

"A particularly highquality feature of our solution is that real measurements of many individual parameters are recorded fully automatically on the stationary vehicle and compared with reference data. This gives us a reliable statement on the SoH," emphasizes Marcel Sieg, Category Manager e-Vehicle & Diagnostics at Hella Gutmann. "With the function HV Battery Diagnostics PRO we can now provide our customers in workshops with another important qualification module for their HV concept. At the same tme, the workshops have no ongoing costs, because they are billed on a pay-per-use basis, a procedure that has already proven itself excellently with our previous remote services."

*At market launch, the 11-kW charging solution from go-e is required - either wall-mounted or as a mobile variant. Approvals of other commercially available charging stations will follow.