What is the environmental impact of electric truck batteries?

The battery life span depends on several factors. The way a vehicle is driven and battery charging practices play a significant role in battery longevity. For the longest possible life span, we offer training courses to help your drivers use the batteries correctly and recharge them under the best conditions. This also improves your profitability by managing your fleet of electric trucks. At the same time, we offer some monitoring tools. These tools monitor the health of your batteries (or SOH - State of Health) in real time and provide a maintenance plan, which again ensures a maximum service life. Our Serenity pack includes full maintenance contract coverage with a battery performance commitment to suit electric vehicles and also take into account the constraints of your business activity. In addition, for a confident transition to electric, we guarantee our batteries for a period of 2 to 8 years, depending on the model.

What if the batteries become less efficient?  

At Renault Trucks, we make a distinction between the first life of the battery and what we call its second life. The first life of the battery is the whole of its use since it was originally fitted to your truck. Its second use may take place in the same application (but this may be on another truck) depending on usage and requirements, or in a new stationary application.

When battery performance no longer fully meets the application, the battery is replaced. We consider a battery to have reached the end of its first life on your truck when the maximum usable energy is approximately 80% of its initial capacity. The duration of this first use is estimated at between 6 and 10 years, depending on application.

What happens to a battery that is removed? Several operations offer this battery a second life. According to the diagnostics performed on a defective battery, it is possible to change only the defective modules or defective sub-components l and to extend the life of the battery, which will then be used in a second life. This is what we call Refurbishing.

It is also possible to completely renovate the battery to the same performance level as a new battery, by changing all the modules, this is what we call Remanufacturing. This means that it can be re-used rather than recycled prematurely.

Once refurbished or remanufactured, the battery is stored in our warehouses and is ready to be supplied for refitting onto a truck.

When batteries no longer have enough efficiency for a second life (or perhaps even third life), we take care of their recycling. Recycling is extremely important for the circular economy and is in keeping with a responsible approach to the whole decarbonisation process of your activity. When recycling batteries, we separate out the components so that they can be re-used. One of the most important points is the re-use of raw materials (graphite, lithium, nickel, etc.). They can be collected for re-use in production. In doing this, Renault Trucks is thinking ahead to the European regulation which by 2030, could require manufacturers to recycle at least 70% of the weight of the battery.

Electric technology is established and reliable. It is suitable for many sectors of activity with performance levels equivalent to combustion engine technology. Through our 360° support we offer associated services for our electric trucks to optimise efficiency and prolong their use. Maintenance contracts also have a role to play in battery longevity. We are supported by a strong and extensive network, fully trained and equipped with electric technology. Please do not hesitate to contact our experts to learn more about electromobility.