BMW Introduces Mobile Charging Van To Rescue Stranded EVs

EV batteries retired from use from BMW and MINI vehicles have found a new lease on life in the form of mobile charging. It’s part of a repurposing and recycling initiative that the company calls the second-life battery programme, which helps keep power units in service for longer before needing to be decommissioned.

BMW has partnered with EV Connection to introduce a Mobile Charging Vehicle that can act as a rescue vehicle for electric ones that have depleted their batteries while on the road. As EVs become more popular in Malaysia, there are bound to be instances when a few of them fail to make it to a charging station in time.

In such a case, BMW’s rescue van can be called to come and charge the battery on site. This will negate the need for the expensive task of having it towed to a nearby charge station. Though still a prototype, the Mobile Charging Vehicle operates on 16 units of repurposed BMW battery modules with a state of health of about 70%.

BMW says that the designed system has a capacity of 20kWh and can provide up to 30kVA three-phase AC power on demand. It’s coupled with a 30kW DC charger positioned at the back of the van and has the ability to charge up to two EVs in a single run. The company also says that it should be enough range to get these vehicles to the nearest charging station.

Besides charging stranded EVs, the Mobile Charging Vehicle is also capable of powering up to 8 homes in disaster zones at full capacity. This second-life programme aims to give BMW and MINI EV battery packs renewed purpose as backup power support for data centres and charging of EVs.

Sashi Ambi, Head of Corporate Communications and Sustainability of BMW Group Malaysia said, “The repurposing of these end-of-life batteries places them back into the loop to continue serving the EV ecosystem. The closing of this loop recognises the significant value of the precious metals that are in our batteries, which are finite resources on this planet.”

The company also hopes that it will help spur the development of sustainable innovation and sharing of technological know-how. This programme is also part of BMW Group Malaysia’s RE:GENERATE initiative to adopt circularity within the organisation to divert EV batteries to areas where they could prove to be useful.

If such a system catches on, range anxiety may be a thing of the past for EV owners. Instead of worrying about running out of power on a busy street or gridlock traffic jam, they could simply pull over when it’s safe to do so, and call for this charging service. It’s a win-win for the electric vehicle community.