A short while ago the UK government announced a £4.8m for new Vehicle-to-Everything charging technologies, which would allow the country’s 1.7 million EV (electric vehicle) owners to use their electric vehicle batteries to power their homes, writes our regular contributor on auto crime affairs, Ken German.
This investment would enable bidirectional charging technologies to be used by families not only to charge cars when electricity costs are lowest, use it in their home at peak times when prices are higher and even allow them to save money on their bills by selling electricity from their vehicles back to the grid (V2G). It’s hoped that an EV, fitted with the right parts would enable owners to export power from the high-voltage packs, something that vehicle to home (V2H) functionality will deliver.
This new technology has seen the desirability of EV, HEVs, and PHEV batteries increase and with current replacement values ranging from £6,000 to £9,000 pounds even those EVs that are damaged or written off’ are becoming hard to find.
Indeed the average market price for second-hand EVs’ batteries has seen buyers paying between £7K to £11K for a 2.5-year-old battery used for less than 15.000 miles and £2K to £5K for one that is 12 years of age that has done 130,000 miles. These batteries may progressively degrade as they reach the end of their life in an EV, but many still retain up to 75 per cent of their original capacity.
Insurance companies suggest one in five EV accidents will result in them being ‘written off’ due to the battery packs losing their structural rigidity. A dent in the battery’s protective casing, which is part of the car’s floor and a stressed member of the chassis makes repair, often expected to cost £30,000 for a full replacement, nigh on impossible according to the manufacturers. Their official procedure is to replace the entire battery pack which for a typical family EV is likely to exceed the used value of the car itself. Many insurance companies demand fully comprehensive cover.
Very few authorise third-party garages and even main dealers are authorised to open and repair high-voltage battery packs due to the lack of technicians qualified to work on them. Those that can command high labour rates and waiting times for specialist repairs can be costly.
As people realise that their rechargeable EV power sources can add value to everyday life if used for light and power in place of the usual noisier, smellier and less eco-friendly diesel generators used by those who cannot or will not plug into any national grid; this use may extend not just to power cuts, but natural disasters and even those requiring life supporting medical devices medical devices that run on electricity.
The UK’s organised crime gangs are much more interested in EVs than they were, and have devised sophisticated car stealing tools that are now proficient in stealing the cars and removing these desirable batteries, often within minutes.
This has put this country’s police, already under pressure from escalating car crime, in a bit of a quandary; as the figures for the theft of EVs (the whole car with or without the battery) is rising exponentially mainly due to this new phenomenon. In Europe, thieves from Albania, Poland, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria have been caught selling stolen EV batteries to power both photovoltaic (solar) and wind power systems for between 4,000 to 10,000 euros each.
In Australia, the thieves’ desire to acquire these lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride, and lead-acid energy storage systems has seen the demand for insurance write-offs now exceed supply and an increase in EV theft.
The belief that countries in Africa, South America and Asia show no interest in stolen EVs has changed completely as those inhabitants that live in remote areas where few EVs venture and even fewer charging stations exist, now realise how important these power sources could be for survival, certainly compared with the noisy smelly diesel-petrol generators some use.
There is welcome news for the police and authorities, victims and insurance companies however; as vehicle manufacturers have encouraged the placing of covert and overt identifiers onto EV batteries that would enable them to be traced back to source, the car they were originally fitted to. This ultimately allows the police to prove or disprove theft and repatriate the stolen batteries to victims or the insurance companies.
Certain remote communities fortunate to be given these stationary off-grid energy systems, had even ‘daisy-chained’ several batteries together, enough to power a small village and coupled them with solar storage units. Needless to say initial examination to observe this successful technology has discovered that some newer batteries that could be identified were found to be stolen, which has created a dilemma for the authorities.
There can be no argument that theft is theft, but whether or not to turn a blind eye to these instances where often lifesaving technology has greatly improved the living conditions of the inhabitants who clearly need water and power to survive, has become a moral conundrum to the authorities, the insurance companies and the original owners of the stolen vehicles.
A decade ago, I wrote about a similar moral dilemma that existed around the theft, sale and use of stolen lightweight motorcycle and moped engines of 90/100cc mainly from the far east which were being re-used innocently by the inhabitants of hundreds of remote villages in Africa, India and Asia. Their use as life-saving generators and mechanical pumps provided much needed power essential to draw well water to the surface and of course electricity. The question was who would be responsible for taking away those that were identified as stolen.
The conundrum as to whether or not the victims, police and insurance companies should seize back these stolen engines was short lived and very few were formally seized. This ‘no brainer’ saw very few formally seized, leaving those with the authority to do so to leave them as donations (with a modicum of publicity).
With global electric vehicle (EV) sales reaching over 16.5 million by October 2025 and scientists estimating that ‘retired’ EV batteries could satisfy 30 per cent of global grid storage needs by 2030, this quandary could run for some time, no doubt just like these batteries!
Photo by Mark Rowe: downtown Glasgow.
