CARY, N.C. -

Cox Automotive Mobility said Wednesday it has purchased Spiers New Technologies, a service provider for electric vehicle battery lifecycle management with operations in the U.S. and Europe.

The pairing of the companies is part of Cox Automotive Mobility’s new end-to-end global EV battery service network, where the company offers high-voltage battery solutions to dealers, automakers and fleet providers.

Spiers provides repair, remanufacturing, refurbishing and repurposing of advanced battery packs in hybrids and EVs, and gives Cox Automotive muscle in terms of diagnosing EV battery health and managing the lifecycle of those EV batteries. Or as one executive put it, the partnership brings “a closed-loop servicing ecosystem for EV batteries.”

“Cox Automotive is the only company that’s connected to every pillar of the automotive industry and every stage of a vehicle’s life,” Cox Automotive president Steve Rowley said in a news release. “As an innovator and thought leader for more than 75 years, we don’t wait for things to change, we cause the change. Taking charge of the EV battery lifecycle and creating sustainable solutions for our planet is no exception.”

Added Lea Malloy, who is head of research and development at Cox Automotive Mobility: “Cox Automotive Mobility is committed to being the best battery health innovator and end-to-end solutions provider for the safe promotion and preservations of our electric future. Our early investments in the space and EV battery health patent were just the start.

“Now, we’ve gone a step further with the acquisition of Spiers New Technologies, the world’s leading service provider of EV battery life cycle management.”

Roughly 18 months ago, SNT and Cox Automotive Mobility started building a third-party battery health diagnostic tool, powered by SNT’s ALFRED battery decisioning platform, that assesses an EV battery’s condition and value.

The company likened such EV battery health scoring to the work that its sister company Kelley Blue Book has done in the vehicle valuation space.

And parent company Cox Automotive is providing EV health reports as part of condition reports at select Manheim auctions.

“And so far to date, it’s had value add in terms of anywhere from 1-4% incremental residual value retention for those vehicles,” Malloy said in an interview with Auto Remarketing. “That’s what we’re really all about in terms of supporting our clients in the used market, protecting that residual value retention and avoiding that used EV discount.”

Looking forward, Malloy said Cox Automotive and Spiers have a similar view of the future of EVs. She broke the Cox Automtoive vision down into three buckets: protecting the planet, advancing the industry and EV adoption and protecting their communities.

“This EV ambition is really supporting this broader cause. And although taking care of the planet is everyone’s responsibility, it gets amplified because the move to battery-electric is one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but with that comes this introduction and sort of challenge for the industry of, ‘what’s the proper care and treating of those EV battery packs once they’re at end of life?’” she said. “And so that’s where with the Spiers partnership, it’s a really great combination to offer to the industry a scaled footprint for this closed-loop servicing ecosystem for EV batteries.”

The partnership also has tentacles that extend throughout the Cox Automotive landscape, as well. For example, helping in decision-making about what repairs might be needed when an EV is in service at a Manheim auction. Or or the retail side, adding another layer of merchandising for dealer listings on Autotrader. 

“The battery health report is great, because it’s diagnostic and it helps with valuation and it builds on the valuation background that KBB built. And it’s an insight into decisioning about maybe what the next service or support action is for Manheim,” Malloy said. “So, absolutely an offering that Manheim (can provide), in partnership with the OEMs, will be battery repair or refurbishment or replacement, potentially.

“But the other use cases across Cox Automotive are elevated merchandising of electric vehicles, so (on) KBB and Autotrader, now you can present more information about the highest value part of that vehicle, the battery pack. And the biggest pain point for the consumer in a used EV purchase is, ‘Well, how healthy is this battery?’” she said.

As far as its extention into Cox Automotive Mobility, battery health monitoring will be part of the support offered to fleet operators. 

“And then if you kind of pan over to mobility, the use case gets really interesting, as well because battery health will be a capability we’ll run in the background as part of our fleet operations support,” Malloy said. “But the belief is, commercial vehicles will electrify faster than the U.S. car park, largely driven by the lower total cost of operations.

“And with that higher utilization and more charge cycles, there will be more batteries that may require a service event, and we want to be there to help.”