While motorists are becoming more used to the idea that electric vehicles are here to stay, there is still an element of consumer unease about buying one. The range anxiety issue has largely been addressed. What hasn’t is battery life and exactly how this piece of the puzzle works, especially when it comes to trading in and valuing a vehicle for the used car market.
An EV battery has an estimated lifespan of eight to 10 years. How well it wears depends on how a vehicle is driven and charged. A battery subjected to constant fast charging and rapid acceleration will show more wear and tear than one charged at home and driven more evenly. But either way, the crux comes when it’s time to sell. Exactly how much of the battery is still viable, and how will this affect the second-hand price?
“The battery is the most valuable but least understood part of an EV,” says Olan O’Sullivan. “And at the moment decisions about pricing and reselling are being made with weak or no battery evidence.”
O’Sullivan cofounded BatteryCycle with Professor Fabiano Pallonetto last year to plug this evidence gap.
“Currently, fleets and leasing companies have no scalable way to assess degradation, and without proof of battery condition, resale values drop, even for healthy vehicles. BatteryCycle provides the high-quality battery intelligence information fleets and leasing companies need to manage the financial risk and operational complexity around EV batteries.”
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BatteryCycle is manufacturer-agnostic and uses a web app to provide its battery reports in real time. No new systems integration or bespoke hardware is needed.
The company’s battery health check generates information about the condition of the battery by analysing a charging session. It accesses this information by using the vehicle’s existing data connection to the manufacturer. (Most EV drivers/fleets will already have a connected services account they can use.)
The health check indicates the remaining battery life expressed as a percentage. Based on the number, the system will estimate the vehicle’s market value, show a value range, and flag any battery risks.
“Our competitors tend to be either hardware test kits or single-purpose analytics, whereas we’re an integrated, data-first platform,” O’Sullivan says.
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“Our differentiation is our ‘data-fusion’ approach that links real-world charging and usage patterns with battery health indicators to create simple, decision-ready insights that enable fleet operators to dispose of their vehicles at the right time at the right price. So, it’s essentially a two-in-one diagnostics and financial analytics tool. The test also works for plug-in hybrids, while with mild hybrids we can provide an estimate based on mileage.
“The European leasing market is worth over €300 billion annually (passenger vehicles and LCVs) and we aim to have 50,000 vehicles under management by 2030 at an average revenue per vehicle of €300.”
O’Sullivan says the BatteryCycle tool will bring more transparency to the EV market by offering third-party verification of battery life. This becomes particularly important for price-sensitive consumers who end up buying older EVs that are heading towards the end of their battery warranty.
BatteryCycle’s co-founders first met a decade ago at an event organised by the National Digital Research Centre to link academic researchers with entrepreneurs. They stayed in touch, and around 2020 the idea for BatteryCycle began to surface. Over the next few years, they refined their business proposition based on industry feedback. The company, which employs five people, is part of the 2050 global accelerator for sustainability solutions based at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin.
O’Sullivan’s first job was as an oil market analyst in London. He then spent time in corporate finance with Dermot Desmond’s IIU Asset Strategies and AIB Corporate Finance.
He is no stranger to start-ups either, having previously founded and sold a travel tech company to the Swiss-owned B2B travel platform, TrekkSoft.
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Dr Pallonetto is an expert in smart energy systems and sustainable technologies and is based at Maynooth University, where he is a professor in management information systems.
“We’ve spent approximately €100,000 to date in cash, plus significant founder time in-kind. We’re capital-efficient and asset-light, and most of the spend has been on software and data infrastructure,” O’Sullivan says.
The company will make its money by charging customers a fee per test, and there is also a subscription option based on agreed volumes. Full commercial launch is slated for later this year and exploratory talks are under way with potential investors with a view to raising €1.2 million.
“Support from Enterprise Ireland’s pre-seed start fund helped us make real progress, but compared with 10 or 12 years ago there are fewer commercial accelerators offering funding. Outside State supports, options are limited,” O’Sullivan says.
“European supports also feel less connected in Ireland than in some other member states. Less bureaucracy and faster decisions would improve impact here.”
BatteryCycle is entering the market with its health check product, but its service is set to expand into related areas, including charging optimisation and making administrative tasks, such as reimbursing staff for charging expenses, easier to manage.
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O’Sullivan says the automotive industry is increasingly focused on software, with fewer maintenance requirements for EVs and a growing proportion of interventions and updates being delivered remotely, rather than at a dealership.
In this scenario, data is king, and having the software to deliver it to fleet operators in an easy-to-use format will be central to making good business decisions. It’s in this respect that O’Sullivan believes BatteryCycle has the most to offer.
In terms of what’s been the hardest part of starting BatteryCycle, O’Sullivan says, “Time. Everything takes longer than you expect.”
