Overview:
As electric vehicles (EVs) become more widespread, the ability to assess their key components, particularly their traction batteries, has become increasingly important. The battery significantly determines not only vehicle performance but also safety, resale value, and overall lifecycle considerations. Unlike conventional combustion-engine vehicles, where established procedures exist to assess engine condition during routine inspections, there is currently no standardized and reliable way to evaluate the state of health and remaining useful life of EV traction batteries during routine technical inspections.
The systematic review "Approaches for Lifetime Prediction of Vehicle Traction Battery Systems During a Technical Inspection", published in the World Electric Vehicle Journal, examines the current state of research on battery lifetime and remaining useful life prediction methods. The study, co-authored by BRIDGES researchers Prof. Dr. Rr. Rüther and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Georg Schweiger, analyzed 633 scientific publications and 22 patents, identifying 150 different lifetime prediction approaches. These range from physics-based models to advanced data-driven techniques.
Despite this extensive body of research, the review concludes that none of the existing approaches are directly suitable for use in standardized technical vehicle inspections. Most available diagnostic methods rely on extensive historical operating data, long testing periods, or laboratory conditions - none of which are feasible within short, regulated inspection procedures. These findings highlight an important research gap between academic developments in battery aging analysis and their practical implementation in inspection contexts.
For regulators, inspection authorities, and especially buyers and sellers in the EV market, this represents a relevant challenge, as reliable, neutral battery health assessments are essential for safety, transparency, and consumer trust.
Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj17010003