Is It Worth It?

So is it possible to properly maintain batteries on the ramp? Maybe a better question is: Is there a financial return on the cost of maintaining batteries on the ramp? If you haven’t guessed, I think the answer is, yes. First, have you noticed the price of batteries lately? Commodity prices – lead, copper, and steel specifically – have pushed battery prices to record levels. We can’t think of a battery as a component of the vehicle any more; it’s an asset unto itself. And by adding a little life to a battery fleet, the cost justification of battery maintenance is easy. Let’s start with a simple example: 15 electric vehicles and 15 batteries. All we want to do is make sure they’re watered properly and equalize charged twice per month. There are many ways to accomplish this, but in this example, the maintenance department is going to make sure one battery gets watered and equalize charged each night. The cost may be a little labor, but extending battery life is easily $10,000 in annual savings. Let’s now look at a larger “real life” operation with about 300 pieces of electric equipment. They invested in a whole battery maintenance department, which costs an exorbitant $150,000 per year. But the increased battery life saves twice that at $300,000 per year. And that’s just the start of the savings. Think about savings in operator labor because they are no longer looking for working tractors. There’s reduced downtime and reduced battery maintenance. There’s reduced tractor maintenance because they have a high voltage batteries. And reduced lost luggage and flight delays, and improved customer satisfaction. Could the savings be $500,000? $1 Million? $5 million? Now I have to admit that part of me doesn’t mind poor battery maintenance at all. I mean, I’m content to sell twice as many batteries as necessary. But I believe that in the long term, we can all thrive if we do the absolute best we can.