BattMAN – Emergence and application of the software

BattMAN ReLife owes its success to the development work carried out together with recycling experts at Volkswagen Group Components. After months of painstaking programming and product testing, BattMAN ReLife finally becomes an innovative analytical tool that is able to give a reliable assessment of a battery and determine its future path in a short period of time.

Using advanced technology, BattMan is helping with the initial diagnosis of battery recycling at Volkswagen Group Components pilot plants and several other Volkswagen Group brands.

An interesting example is Audi Brussels’ quality management department, which is responsible for developing the first version of BattMAN for advanced analysis of Audi’s high-voltage e-tron battery.

How the BattMAN software works

How does all this BattMAN work? The first step is to connect it to the low-voltage connectors, and then check whether the car battery is able to communicate and transmit data. If this operation is successful, the system begins to detect and display error messages and information about insulation resistance, capacity, temperature and cell voltage. Axel Vanden Branden, quality engineer at Audi Brussels explains: “We are able to measure all the most important cell parameters. The traffic light system then indicates the status of the cell on a cell-by-cell basis: green means that the cell is in good condition, yellow that it needs a closer inspection, and red that the cell is faulty.”

This allows the user to determine the overall state of the battery. Depending on the available capacity detected by the system, the high-voltage battery can:

  • Be reused in whole or in part in an electric vehicle
  • receive a second life as a mobile or stationary energy reservoir,
  • undergo an effective recycling process and be reused in the production of new cells.

    Frank Blome, head of battery cells and systems at Volkswagen Group Components, says: “We know that recycled battery materials are just as effective as new ones. These recycled materials will be reused for cell production in the future.”

    Volker Germann, CEO of Audi Brussels, added, “The development of BattMAN ReLife is an excellent example of the success to which cooperation between the different brands of the Volkswagen Group leads.”

So, as you can see, BattMAN ReLife is a real revolution that can transform the operation of many e-mobility-related businesses, and at the same time take care of the planet!