EV battery service parts and aftersales logistics demand a new supply chain model, says Renault Group’s Israfil Beker

Joining Automotive Logistics on the Red Sofa in Bonn, Renault Group's general manager of aftersales EV supply chain, Israfil Beker, shared batteries can represent up to 30% of a vehicle's total value, they're classified as hazardous goods, and regulatory requirements fragment unpredictably. Germany alone, he pointed out, sees rules vary by state. Handling any of that through an adapted spare parts model was, in his view, never a realistic option. "We checked if we could just copy-paste that process – and the answer was no."

What Renault built instead was a supply chain designed around the battery as a high-value asset rather than a consumable. Parts flow in multiple directions – through dealerships, repair centres, warehouses and recyclers – rather than along a single line from supplier to customer. The centrepiece is a battery swap scheme: remove the customer from the equation quickly, repair the original unit in parallel, return it to stock. "We cannot afford to have a vehicle off-road for 15 or 20 days," Beker said. Circularity, in that context, becomes a practical answer to an inventory challenge.

Data, he argued, is still where progress remains slowest. Partners across the network – dealers, logistics providers, repair centres – run different ERP, WMS and TMS systems, making real-time visibility difficult to achieve. "What we need from our suppliers and partners is to give us real-time data," he said. "That is the biggest challenge we are facing."

The destination, as Beker frames it, is a 360-degree model where each party functions as both supplier and customer. A battery repair centre, for instance, receives spare parts from Renault while simultaneously returning refurbished units to its stock. "We all need each other," he said. "We have to work on that all together."

Beker shares all in his Red Sofa interview, click play to uncover all the insights.