ROI Power Up Brochure 2023

“ Charge up” your workshop for battery season

Did you know? Over 40% of yearly national breakdowns are caused by a faulty battery. Thousands of vehicles are towed off to nominated garages or fixed at the roadside to have this simple fault rectified. That vehicle owner may have been in a garage a week before having a service or planned work and this fault wasn’t picked up at the time. The result may make the customer think twice about going back to this garage.

There are plenty of opportunities for a workshop to upsell or gain extra revenue, no more so than batteries. Batteries eventually fail – simple. Checking a customer’s battery should be part of the service you offer, if it’s working then great, you can give the customer the good news, if not then recommend the next course of action, most customers will be receptive to getting it changed.

Vehicle and battery age The average age of the vehicle car parc is aging, and the used car market is on the increase. What does that mean for the IMT, more cars that will need servicing and probably many batteries that will need replacing due to end of life.

We have been promoting for the last couple of years the importance of battery testing, but did you know what can make a battery fail and why a simple test can be preventative for your customer.

But how long should a car battery last?

In general, a vehicle will usually need a new battery after four to five years. This figure can depend on how the vehicle is driven, mileage, storage and other factors. However as the car parc ages and consumers are keeping vehicles for longer, the likelihood is that there will be more battery failures. The answer is simple, test every vehicle that enters your workshop and make sure your customer has a fit for purpose battery. Turn over and read on about how testing batteries can help you and your customers.

Weather conditions Hot and cold weather both stress a battery. In the warmer weather it can cause cells to crack, the colder weather will exaggerate these failures, meaning poor or non performance (Cranking power).

Short journeys and low mileage Both of these will put huge amounts of stress through

Battery corrosion Battery corrosion over time will affect the how the battery will maintain a charge and eventually the ability to start the vehicle. Always look for corrosion and test.

a battery, being undercharged for any period of time will affect the condition of the battery, leading to poor performance.

4

5