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Implementing and optimizing the sustainability of vehicles that contain embedded electrochemical energy storage have recently been afforded more attention in research due to legislative requirements and cited benefits from circular economy activities. The State-of-Health (SoH) for a traction battery system that prematurely failed can be restored through circular economy activities such as remanufacturing. To enable these circular economy activities, the ability to introduce a new or graded cell or module into a series string to replace the weakest cell or module in a battery module or pack is vital. However, very little is understood about the optimal strategy that will lead to maximizing the lifetime of the most aged cell or module in the new string and predict the expected lifetime of the repaired or remanufactured battery system.

Increasingly international academic and industrial communities desire to better understand, implement and improve the sustainability of vehicles that contain embedded electrochemical energy storage. Underpinning a number of studies that evaluate different circular economy strategies for the electric vehicle (EV) battery system are implicit assumptions about the retained capacity or State-of-Health (SoH) of the battery. International standards and best-practice guides exist that address the performance evaluation of both EV and HEV battery systems. However, a common theme in performance testing is that the test duration can be excessive and last for a number of hours. The aim of this research is to assess whether energy capacity and internal resistance measurements of Li-ion based modules can be optimized, reducing the test duration to a value that may facilitate further End-of-Life (EoL) options.

While a number of publications have addressed the high-level requirements of remanufacturing to ensure its commercial and environmental sustainability, considerably less attention has been given to the technical data and associated test strategies needed for any evidence-based decision as to whether a vehicle energy storage system should be remanufactured - extending its in-vehicle life, redeployed for second-life (such as domestic or grid storage) or decommissioned for recycling. The aim of this paper is to critically review the strategic requirements for data at the different stages of the battery value-chain that is pertinent to an Electric Vehicle (EV) battery remanufacturing strategy. Discussed within the paper is the derivation of a feasible remanufacturing test strategy for the vehicle battery system.