Electric Vehicle EV Battery Rebuild

What do we do with EV batteries when they need repair? How do we rebuild them? Can a single module be changed? What are mechanics going to have to do in the future with hybrids and EVs?

[lauralhardy]

Do yourself a safety favour and get insulated socket sets for the HV side of the work. There is a set we use at work made by Sibille Outillage that are rated at 1kV flashover. Very good stuff.

[halflife]

10 years ago I built my own electric moped. I built it with 96V large lithium cells (8” tall each). Had to replace every sub module in the moped with 100v compatible ones so I had working brake lights, headlight, signals, etc. I rewound the electric motor with much heavier gauge wire, and much heavier leads to the controller. Put in a very powerful controller I bought from china, and had a custom BMS built in China at a factory to handle the huge amount of current I needed. It was a big job building it all and no info online about any of it as it was very leading edge 10 years ago. Wow it was amazing though. It would do 80km/h, and had over 100km of range. It was stupid quick too. Rode it daily to work for 2 years before I sold it to a friend.

Thanks for the video as it brought back a lot of memories! Hindsight I should prob. have taken more safety precautions with the 96V battery I built from scratch. Bare hands and lots of soldering, with no safety gear whatsoever. 😂 Glad I never made a mistake!

[Tron-Jockey]

But, but, shhhh, don't tell people that a battery can be repaired so cheaply. The anti-EV trolls want everyone to believe the entire battery pack (very expensive) must be replaced every time.

[otomoravec]

you are methodical and calm, valueable character attributes (not only) for this profession

[ThisRandomUsername]

Great video. Something to note about when you replace modules is that certain chemistries (LiFePO4 comes to mind) has very flat charge curve, so 0, 1V difference can be a large difference in charge state. For these chemistries, you should top balance them.

You do this because if you can find a point on the curve where the voltage climbs rapidly with increasing charge, you can be sure all the cells are within a tight range.

This is a lot of effort with high voltage packs, especially if you've disconnected all the bus bars, stopping you from being able to charge large sections at once.

[XYZ]

One of the best content on the topic. Thanks!

[kyozoku]

Thank you for that breakdown. I really appreciate it!!

[ginobragoli]

I know nothing about EV but I found this very interesting.👍

[dragossorin]

This industry needs building norms in order to facilitate battery repair since is the most expensive part

[thomasfx]

Even Fluke talks about the “one hand rule” in their materials in measuring high voltage. My experience with with electrical equipment tells me that any arc is looking for a ground. If I touch a sources of voltage with bare hands or while wet an arc will discharge the voltage to the nearest ground being the nearest conductor whether of not I have my hand behind my back.

[kulvindersinghdhiman]

Sir you give us the very good knowledge thanks a lots

[bradleyrupska]

As a twenty six year electrician. Not only do you need protective gloves. At those voltages, you need a 70e rated suit, face shield!

[joblo]

Yes, "grease monkeys" and "gear heads" are going to have to become electricians.

[Hybridog]

We got a new Bolt EUV in November of last year. We tend to keep cars for 10 years or more. I'm hoping that if it needs a new battery someday, there will be EV battery rebuilders available to do the job.

[Teslacustoms]

Nice detail, u are first person I seen using safety gloves 😂😂😂. I’m doing 2013 model s module replacement and decided to go get some hi voltage glove’s despite no one else using them. Never could find detail video on safety but I will also take out pyro to lower voltage. Thanks for info., would like to do one of these one day!

[Uriah]

Everyone seems to be commenting about safety. I guess I can play along.

You should be wearing a full fire retardant suit, like 20 cal, and only natural fiber clothing like cotton underneath. A full face shield with glasses behind. I work in power generation and do switching of 128kv. In reality I would suggest wearing natural fiber clothing with long sleeves and a face shield until you verify dead or safe from fault. As far as the “one handed” rule, Yeah, I wouldn’t worry. You are wearing high voltage gloves, like way above the voltage you are working with. I have never seen a coworker do work or test with just one hand.

Overall, cool presentation.

[dk-vw]

…in the future. how far away are we from HV battery rebuilding? What companies are out there doing this now? Is it an option for PHEV owners, that are outside of vehicle warranty? How does it compare cost wise to a replacement?

[djand]

You need a meter that has a slot to hold one of the probes, then use ground lead with an alligator clip. Then you only need one hand to make high voltage readings.

[theeamazingkrabb]

I'm a battery discharge engineer with a battery recycler. I need to get my operators trained to disassemble live packs to the module level. Where can i get this training?

[gamerjay]

Hey Mate, as a HV sparky on mobile mining gear, Diesel electric drive truck etc, the onearm rule is simply ludicrious and more dangerous, gloves yes, safety glasses yes definietly and no exposed arms like you were, rolled down sleeves without exposed skin to contact.