Battery serial numbers

[speedking31]

Are EV battery serial numbers listed on the V5 like ICE engine serial numbers?

If not then what stops a dealer replacing the 1 year old battery pack in the car they're selling with one from a 5 year old car? Can the purchaser check?

[codenamecueball]

speedking31 said:

Are EV battery serial numbers listed on the V5 like ICE engine serial numbers?

If not then what stops a dealer replacing the 1 year old battery pack in the car they're selling with one from a 5 year old car? Can the purchaser check?

How many people are buying petrol cars and checking the engine against the V5? How many dealers are swapping new engines for old high mile ones?

The main thing stopping people doing it is that it would be ludicrously expensive to do so and only a main dealer would possess the equipment to do it at present.

[speedking31]

I always checked the engine number against the V5 when buying a secondhand ICE. I'd have thought that swapping an EV battery is a lot easier than swapping an IC engine. Just me then.

[GT6k]

Whilst it is theoretically possible to swap a traction battery it is at least as difficult as swapping an engine and as battery packs have various encoded functions the software side of the swap is a) difficult and b) relatively easy to see it has been swapped.

The batteries that are easy to swap tend to be the simple older ones that are relatively plentiful and cheap so the potential criminal gain is low. There are easier and more profitable routes for the dodgy mechanic.