Clarios Expands Battery Monitoring Capabilities to Trailers, Outlines Sodium-Ion Plans During CES
Clarios, a provider of advanced low-voltage battery technologies, has launched battery-monitoring capabilities for trailers equipped with liftgates and other powered systems, providing visibility into the trailer battery’s state of charge and health.
The solution is designed to help fleets detect battery issues before they result in failed deliveries, unscheduled maintenance and roadside service.
“We were talking with so many fleets,” said Cagatay (Chaatay) Topcu, vice president of connected services at Clarios. “In one of the meetings, the customer asked, ‘Hey, can you help us hold the trailer batteries?’ We will be honest, we didn’t know they had a problem with the trailer batteries.”
After installing sensors and gateways to monitor trailer batteries, Clarios identified common failure scenarios, including liftgate power issues and batteries that became discharged while trailers sat in yards. “We can identify both of them very easily and notify the decision maker or the person who needs to take an action,” Topcu said.
The trailer monitoring capability integrates into Clarios’ broader Connected Services platform, which also includes IdleLess, aimed at reducing unnecessary idling, and Battery Manager, which predicts battery end-of-life and reduces the need for manual testing.
Des Moines, Iowa-based Ruan Transportation Management Systems was the first fleet to deploy Clarios’ IdleLess battery-monitoring technology for tractors late last year and is rolling it out in phases.
Pricing for trailer monitoring varies depending on fleet size and includes an initial fee and a monthly subscription. Preventing even a small number of trailer battery-related failures, which can average $700 or more per incident, would pay for the system, Topcu said.
With the addition of battery monitoring, Topcu said the system brings two big changes to battery maintenance. “No. 1, don’t do any testing because battery testers are not reliable. Battery testing takes a lot of time, and it doesn’t give you any good insight,” he said.
Topcu also advises fleets not to pull all the batteries in a multiple-battery pack when there is a battery issue. “There hasn’t been a good way to tell which battery is good, which battery is bad and how much you can use. Now, with our monitoring, we are telling you to replace this specific battery, and you can keep the other batteries,” he said. “That is reducing the battery replacement cost, and we are extending the battery life with very high accuracy.”
OEMs typically install four batteries in a Class 8 tractor. “Very sophisticated fleets usually like to have a second pack. We saw one very risk-averse fleet with 12 batteries,” Topcu explained. “Based on our monitoring, one pack is enough, and you can achieve the reliability level you want.”
With the monitoring, fleets can customize alerts, so they are sent to the appropriate contact depending on the issue. “For the idling solution and the trailer solution, our real contact is the operations because they are in charge of fuel cost,” Topcu said. “When it comes to the Battery Manager, which
is looking at the battery health, we are working with maintenance because they want to know the state of health of the battery is and which battery needs to be replaced.”
Drivers can also receive alerts if trailers they are pulling aren’t connected or have a low battery.
In addition to the trailer announcement, Clarios provided an update on its sodium-ion battery strategy during CES. Federico Morales-Zimmermann, group vice president and general manager of global OEM customers, products and engineering at Clarios, said sodium-ion battery chemistry is a long-term option solution for automotive and commercial vehicle applications.
Sodium-ion batteries rely on salt-based raw materials that are abundant globally and do not require lithium or rare-earth elements. The chemistry is well suited for low-voltage systems that prioritize power delivery over energy density, Morales-Zimmermann said.
“Sodium ion is a chemistry that is almost on par with lithium ion when it comes to low-voltage batteries,” he explained. “In low-voltage batteries, you don’t need energy density. We need power density.”
Sodium ion offers cold-weather performance improvements and can reduce supply chain risks. “With sodium ion, we have found a formula that becomes completely independent of China, independent of Asia,” Morales-Zimmermann added.
Clarios is working with partners to assemble and test prototype sodium-ion cells and plans to bring the technology into serial production before the end of the decade.