One of the downsides of owning an EV is that you know your battery is degrading over time, but, you can’t really know how much. There are ways to arrive at estimates, but until now, there hasn’t been a definitive way to test it. Well, Jalopnik has been given access to a new system that changes all that, and we’d like to invite our readers to check it out.
Jalopnik is hosting an electrified car meet-up near the Malibu Public Library (linked) in Malibu, California this Saturday, February 24 so we can measure your car’s battery health and collect battery data for future stories. We will be using a new product designed to measure hybrid and EV battery health called vsNEW, check out the VSNew website here to learn about the product.
I will be hosting the meet up from about 9 a.m. local time to about noon local time; I’ll be joined by one of our senior editors, Daniel Golson, and a representative from vsNEW to make sure everything goes smoothly, and to answer any questions about the product. The product collects the VIN, year, make, model and odometer to identify the car that is being tested, but nothing else. We will never use any data to specifically identify the person associated with the vehicle.
If you live near Los Angeles and own a car that’s on the list of compatible vehicles, we want you to come to the meet up! I chose to host it in Malibu since it’s a beautiful drive and is located near EV charging stations for those with plug-in vehicles.
vsNEW is a product that is designed for dealers so they can measure a hybrid or EV’s battery health to help make educated purchases when buying a used electrified car. As many of us know, battery health can degrade over many cycles of charging and discharging, and EV and hybrid battery replacement is hugely expensive, so the purpose of this product is to allow car dealers to test battery health and share that data with prospective buyers.
Your car’s Battery Management System or BMS contains all the battery health information necessary to determine the health of your battery, and the vsNEW software reads that and compiles a battery health report. This includes maximum range, maximum battery capacity, frequency of fast charging vs regular charging, and the software calculates your car’s battery replacement risk.
We hope to see you this Saturday near the Malibu Public Library between 09:00 am and 12:00 pm!