What should a garage do with a damaged EV battery?

Isolate the car and judge whether the battery is critical. Let trained staff remove it with the manufacturer's instructions, then hand it over through the official route or to a specialised centre. YouPower Recycling, our Battery Disassembly Center, takes in damaged cars, removes the battery safely, checks the cells and dismantles what cannot be reused. Our page on battery recycling shows each step of that process. Below you find what to do in the first hours, who may touch the battery and where it goes in Belgium.

It is Friday afternoon. The tow truck drops off an electric car with a bent floor, and the insurer is already talking about a total loss. Where can it stand over the weekend? Who takes the battery out, and who pays for that?

What you do not see is the real problem. A damaged battery can look calm at first. That is why Febelauto keeps every EV battery that reaches its storage partners in quarantine for 72 hours first. And if the battery was not handled correctly, an insurer may refuse to cover the damage, Febelauto warns. A wreck sold on without its history only moves the risk: on forums, people build home batteries from packs out of crashed cars.

Taking batteries out of damaged cars is exactly what our Battery Disassembly Center does. Every brand has its own disassembly instructions, and our experience with various car brands makes the difference there.

Why is the battery of a damaged electric car a special risk?

An EV battery is a high-voltage battery that stores a lot of energy in a small space. Febelauto, the Belgian take-back organisation for vehicles, calls it technically complex and potentially dangerous once it is damaged.

Febelauto lists the risks: fire, arc flash, electric shock, electrocution and thermal runaway. Thermal runaway is a chain reaction in which one overheating cell heats up the next. A crash can also bend the chassis. The insurer P&V warns that a deformed chassis can, in rare cases, let current from the battery reach the car body.

Three facts matter most for a workshop:

• Once removed, the battery is hazardous waste. Storage, transport and treatment then follow strict rules.
• The danger can show up late. Storage partners of Febelauto keep incoming batteries in quarantine for 72 hours, in containers with fire suppression, to catch critical batteries from crashed cars.
• Insurance depends on correct handling. Febelauto warns that damage is only covered when the batteries were handled correctly.

More electric cars on the road means more damaged ones in workshops, body shops and dismantling yards.

What do you do in the first hours after a damaged EV arrives?

Treat the car as a battery on wheels until a trained person has checked it. Febelauto and P&V give the same basic steps.

• Park it in a safe, well-ventilated place, preferably outside and away from other vehicles and flammable material.
• Do not touch or handle the battery. Leave it in the car until someone trained takes over.
• Keep the key away from the car. P&V warns that keyless entry or start systems can wake up the battery.
• Smoke, heat or a smell: call 112 at once. Without these signs, contact your roadside assistance or your garage.
• Report the incident to the importer or the manufacturer. Their instructions come before any general rule.
• Mark the spot clearly and keep unauthorised people away.

For dismantlers the norm goes one step further. The battery is disconnected as soon as possible after the car arrives. Cars whose battery is still connected stand in their own marked zone, away from other wrecks and combustible waste.

How do you tell whether a damaged EV battery is critical?

Febelauto's decision tree asks two questions: is the battery damaged, and is it defective? The answer decides how you store it, how you report it and how it travels.

Source: Febelauto, safe storage and handling of EV batteries, and the Febelauto norm (May 2026).

Note that a crash or a fire is on the list by itself, even when you see nothing. Water damage counts too. Febelauto sums it up in one line: when in doubt, always treat the battery as a potential risk. The norm adds one more case. When the storage rules were not followed and the condition is in doubt, the battery counts as critical for the rest of the process.

Who may remove the battery from a damaged electric car?

Only trained, authorised staff who follow the manufacturer's instructions. Febelauto tells car owners never to remove an EV battery themselves. For garages and recognised centres, its norm sets the conditions.

• Instructions from the manufacturer for that model. A stricter instruction from the manufacturer always comes first.
• Training and written authorisation. The employer authorises trained operators in writing and appoints a skilled contact person for site safety.
• Insulated tools and protective equipment that meet the IEC 60900 standard, such as insulating gloves, face protection and a voltage tester.
• A risk analysis and an intervention plan for accidents, approved by the fire service.
• The Belgian standard NBN R 03-001:2021 on risks when working on hybrid and electric vehicles, available to the staff who work on them.

Removing is not dismantling. A garage or recognised centre removes the battery, packs it and hands it over. Checking modules for a new use needs specialist knowledge and equipment, and the norm leaves repair, reuse and recycling to other rules.

That is where a specialised centre comes in. At our Battery Disassembly Center the battery is safely removed from the vehicle. We determine its type and features, assess its condition and check how far the cells are damaged. Where needed, we take extra safety measures.

Where can you recycle the battery of an electric car in Belgium?

For the last holder the official route is free. Garages and recognised centres+ must accept EV batteries free of charge, and Febelauto organises collection, treatment and recycling. The environmental contribution pays for it.

Sources: Febelauto, OVAM. Is the car still covered by the brand and simply needs a new battery? Then the garage of the brand is the quickest route, and you do not need a specialist.

The EU Battery Regulation sets the frame. Each region applies it with its own texts:

• Flanders: OVAM and VLAREMA, with separate sections on waste batteries and end-of-life vehicles.
• Wallonia: the decree of 9 March 2023 on waste; SPW names Febelauto as the producer responsibility organisation for EV batteries.
• Brussels: the order of 1 December 2016. A dealer, garage or dismantler must take back an end-of-life vehicle. The car must be complete, registered in Belgium for at least six months and come with all its papers.

One more duty for sales and repair points: article 74 of the Battery Regulation requires a poster on the safe handling of EV batteries. There is one for customers and one for staff. Febelauto offers both posters for download. Does your company also have its own lithium batteries from forklifts or UPS systems? Then read our article on what a company must do with old lithium batteries.

How do you store and transport a damaged EV battery?

Store it dry, cool, covered and apart. Transport it only under the ADR rules, with the right marking and a specialised transporter.

The Febelauto norm lists what a storage zone for EV batteries needs:

• A separate, marked zone with an impermeable floor and weatherproof cover, or a suitable container, with a way to collect leaking liquids.
• Dry, ventilated and out of the sun, away from flammable material and from heat sources above 60 °C.
• Controlled access for defective or damaged batteries; unstable ones go in a special container with monitoring and fire extinguishing equipment, in a quarantine zone.
• Measures agreed with the fire service or an independent expert.
• A written record of everything that may have affected the battery while it was stored. That record decides whether it is safe for transport.

On the road, an EV battery is a dangerous good: class 9, UN 3480. Febelauto writes that the ADR rules for dangerous goods were tightened considerably in 2025. A damaged or defective battery, or one from a crash or fire, gets the marking "Lithium batteries, damaged or defective". It also needs stricter packaging and a specialised transporter.

For its own route, Febelauto offers three kinds of packaging. There are cardboard boxes for non-critical batteries up to 400 kg, wooden crates for larger batteries or several modules, and safety boxes for critical batteries. Hand batteries only to the transporters Febelauto appoints.

What happens to the battery after removal: second life or recycling?

A measurement decides, not the state of the car. A battery from a written-off car can still have healthy modules, and a battery that looks intact can be finished.

The official Febelauto route follows the same logic. After the quarantine, the modules are deeply discharged and tested for health and safety. Good modules are labelled for reuse, the others for recycling at specialised firms such as Umicore. Modules that no longer suit a car can still serve about ten years in stationary storage, Febelauto writes.

After screening, a battery that is not fit for reuse is taken apart by specialists and shredded. The shredder separates copper, aluminium, heavy carbon and black mass, the dark powder that holds metals for new batteries. Made in wrote in December 2024 that our plant in Hamme uses sprinklers, thermal cameras, sensors and nitrogen in the shredder to prevent fires.

Has someone offered you modules from a wrecked car as cheap storage? Our article on second-life batteries for businesses explains why that needs a health record, a new battery management system and a responsible supplier.

What happens when you contact YouPower Recycling?

We start with what you have, not with a promise.

1. Step 1: You tell us what you have. The brand and model, what happened (a crash, a fire, water), whether the battery is still in the car, and where it stands.
2. Step 2: Together we look at the risk and the route. Is the battery critical, and does it belong in the brand's take-back route or at our Battery Disassembly Center?
3. Step 3: At the Battery Disassembly Center the battery is removed safely. We determine its type and condition and check the cells.
4. Step 4: Screening. Suitable batteries go to second life applications. The others are treated as end of life and dismantled safely.