According to experts, the average service life of today’s lithium-ion batteries is 8-10 years or between 500 and 1,000 charge cycles. Battery makers usually guarantee mileage of between 100,000 and 160,000 kilometres. But rapid battery charging, high numbers of charge cycles, an overly sporty driving style, and extremely high or low ambient temperatures are all sources of stress for batteries, which makes them age faster.
Bosch says it is using cloud-based services designed to recognize – and counter – these stress triggers. All battery-relevant data – e.g. current ambient temperature and charging habits – is first transmitted in real time to the cloud, where machine-learning algorithms evaluate the data.
With these services, Bosch is not only offering a window into the battery’s current status at all times, but enabling a reliable forecast of a battery’s remaining service life and performance to be made for the first time.
The new insights gained into a battery’s current status enable Bosch to also actively protect it against aging. Fully-charged batteries for example age more quickly at particularly high or low ambient temperatures. Bosch’s cloud services thus ensure that batteries are not charged to 100 percent when conditions are too hot or too cold, says the company.
