Info Sheet: The Right to Repair of Electric Vehicle Batteries

The right to repair infosheet highlights that EV batteries risk having an artificially limited life in the vehicle given significant barriers to repair. Repair of EV batteries is very challenging requiring additional training or specialized service centers, prohibitively costly meaning consumers or insurers opt to scrap rather than repair the battery, and sometimes impossible due to proprietary technology or battery construction. While there are some developing policies on consumer right to repair, much more robust and effective laws are needed to ensure consumer right to repair of EV batteries to counter premature obsolescence and automakers monopolizing repair services. Such a right to repair includes: (i) providing universal and fair access to diagnostic information, tools and repair manuals; (ii) removing firmware, software and hardware barriers preventing consumer repair; (iii) following standard design criteria for core components, and (iv) ensuring fair access to and availability of spare parts.