Standard Test Procedures for Electric-Vehicle Batteries at the National Battery Test Laboratory

Standard test procedures used for electric-vehicle battery testing at the National Battery Test Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory are described. The testing falls into two general categories--performance characterization and life-cycle testing. Activities within these categories include receipt, inspection, and installation of batteries, pretest conditioning, capacity verification, general open-circuit stand testing, partial depth-of-discharge testing, specific energy vs. specific power testing, simulated electric-vehicle profile testing, peak-power measurements, and life-cycle testing. General descriptions are provided for all tests; further detail is provided for the simulated electric-vehicle profile tests. The results from these simulated electric-vehicle profile tests are presented for a variety of lead-acid, nickel/iron, and nickel/zinc batteries.