Bosch’s New Battery Service Remotely Monitors & Optimizes EV Battery Health

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Bosch is flexing its mastery of electronics with a new cloud-based solution that will allow EV owners to manage and maintain their EV batteries at higher performance. The new solution comes at a time when buyers are flocking to electric vehicles at record numbers, with the bulk of the purchase price going towards the battery of the vehicle.

Image courtesy Bosch

The core of the solution is built around smart algorithms that assess the state of the battery in realtime and compare them to conditions known to stress the battery. These assessments are used to optimize the recharging of the battery pack in realtime to maximize charging speed while minimizing long term damage of the battery pack.

“Bosch is connecting electric-vehicle batteries with the cloud. Its data-based services mean we can substantially improve batteries’ performance and extend their service life,” says Dr. Markus Heyn, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

Bosch has already made enough progress with its Battery in the Cloud solution that Chinese mobility company DiDi signed on for it. DiDi is China’s leading provider of mobility services and is equipping a pilot vehicle fleet in the city of Xiamen, China with the new tech.

Optimized Charging

Bosch believes its new Battery in the Cloud service can extend the service life of a battery by as much as 20%. It does this on the recharging side of the equation by using this data in realtime to optimize every single charging session. Battery recharging times are currently one of the largest perceived obstacles for non-EV drivers and it also represents one of the biggest threats to the long term health of the battery. Each traditional fast charging session has the potential to cause irreversible damage to the individual battery cells which impacts their performance and capacity.

Image courtesy Bosch

Bosch’s Battery in the Cloud technology actively optimizes each and every charging session to ensure the maximum charge with the lowest negative impact on the battery, whether the charge is at home or on the brand new 350 kilowatt ultra fast charger across town. To accomplish this, the solution actively controls the power and voltage levels throughout each charging session.

Tips For Battery-Friendly Driving

On the consumption side, the system can offer drivers custom-tailored tips on how to conserve battery power through the integrated dash display. If we’re being honest with ourselves, it is the fast driving, fast charging, and heavy usage of our electric vehicles that makes them so much fun, but it is these same behaviors that wreak havoc on our batteries. Adding a solution into the vehicle that does its best to mitigate the damage the normal day to day usage of our vehicles has on our batteries is a great way to extend the life of the battery.

Bosch accomplishes this feat by first sending battery data into the cloud — like ambient temperature and charging session information — which is then analyzed by machine-learning algorithms. Using this data, Bosch is able to provide the most realistic look at the current health of the battery as well as a reliable forecast of the battery’s remaining life expectancy. “Powerful batteries with long services lives will make electromobility more viable,” said Bosch’s Heyn.

Image courtesy Bosch

The learnings from a single battery do not remain siloed, but rather, the learnings from each battery in a fleet are aggregated, allowing for fleet trend analysis. This swarm intelligence, as Bosch calls it, helps identify trends that are specific to the region or routes the vehicles are being operated on.

Maintenance

Having a finger on the pulse of the vital signs for a battery pack also lets Bosch identify how battery packs or cells are performing. Looking at performance trends over time provides the data needed to identify battery faults. Those alerts, whether reacting to a cell failure or proactively identify a likely failure, can be routed to owners or fleet managers. This functionality not only minimizes downtime, but it can also catch failures before they pass the point of no return.


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Kyle Field

I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. As an activist investor, Kyle owns long term holdings in Tesla, Lightning eMotors, Arcimoto, and SolarEdge.

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