Redefining the EV Battery End of Life: Internal Resistance Related Limitations

Abstract

Currently Electric Vehicle batteries are considered to reach the End of Life once their State of Health reaches 70-80%. However, notions of circular economy suggest that the battery first-life should be extended as much as possible to reduce their environmental impact.Previous works have considered the range limitations of the drivers, arguing that the End of Life threshold is too conservative for many cases. However, to validate this statement, the increase of the internal resistance must be addressed.In this work a battery model is used to simulate the battery performance under different driving cycles synthesized from real data. Results show that the functional End of Life is forced by capacity, power or safety related issues. The dominant cause for reaching the End of Life depends highly on the battery size. The underperformance is in most cases found after 70-80% State of Health, validating that the first life of most batteries could be extended without affecting the performance of the vehicle.