Electric and hybrid vehicles have quietly become a routine part of the service bay, but the diagnostic tools most independent shops already own were built around the internal-combustion engine. The battery — the single most expensive component in any EV — has largely stayed out of reach for multi-brand scan tools, reserved for expensive, single-purpose specialist equipment. That is starting to change. In its Release 2026.10 software update, Autocom has introduced State of Health (SoH) testing for EV and hybrid high-voltage batteries, available free of charge for the rest of 2026 to any user with a valid CARS Plus or Pro license.
What Autocom State of Health Actually Covers
State of Health is a measure of how much of a battery's original capacity remains — in plain terms, how healthy the high-voltage pack is compared with when the vehicle was new. Autocom's new SoH module reads data from the vehicle's battery system through the OBD socket using the ICON diagnostic VCI and CARS software, and reports the details a shop can actually act on:
- The battery's estimated health as a percentage
- Whether the pack has lost capacity
- Cell balance and any deviations between individual cells or modules
- Fault codes related to the EV systems
After the check, the software generates a printable report that can be handed straight to the customer — a document with immediate value for used-EV sales, warranty cases, and routine service. Autocom frames the feature as "for everyday workshop jobs," and the vehicle coverage list is being expanded on a rolling basis as support for more models is added. The SoH rollout lands alongside a broader database update covering 26 car brands — from Abarth and Alfa Romeo through Mercedes, Porsche, and Volvo — plus nine commercial-vehicle brands, with fixes ranging from updated gearbox fault codes on the BMW 1-series to camera and radar calibration support for the Renault Espace V.
Why Battery Health Testing Matters for Independent Shops
Battery health is fast becoming the make-or-break number in the EV aftermarket. A pack that has lost capacity delivers shorter range, slower charging, and a lower resale value — and it can foreshadow costly repair work down the road. For a shop, being able to measure that number changes the conversation in three ways.
First, it turns a vague warning into a verifiable figure. Instead of telling a customer "the battery seems weak," a technician can point to a percentage and a cell-balance map. Second, it protects the shop: a documented SoH check taken at service intake or before a used-EV sale creates a record that can settle disputes later. Third, it opens a new revenue stream. EV owners increasingly ask for battery health reports, and the shop that can produce one on the spot wins that work. The timing matters, too. Independent shops have watched EV and hybrid volumes climb while the tooling to assess them stayed expensive and narrowly focused. A health check built into a multi-brand diagnostic platform lowers the barrier to roughly the cost of the tool already on the bench.
How It Works — and What the Free Period Signals
The mechanics are deliberately simple. The technician connects the ICON VCI to the vehicle's OBD port, runs the SoH function inside CARS, and reads the results. No extra hardware beyond the existing diagnostic interface is required — which is the point. Autocom is folding battery-health testing into the everyday workflow rather than selling it as a separate box. For the rest of 2026 the service is free for anyone with a valid CARS Plus or Pro license; from 2027 it becomes a paid add-on.
That pricing structure is worth reading carefully. It is a classic trial-to-adoption move designed to get SoH into daily use before it carries a fee — and it signals how seriously the vendor is treating the EV segment. It also carries a practical lesson for shops that already keep a scan tool on the bench: the value is increasingly in what the software can read, not just the hardware in the case. A battery tester that only handles 12-volt starter batteries is only half the picture on a modern fleet; high-voltage health is where the new revenue sits.
What This Signals for the Diagnostic Market
The bigger story is what Autocom's move says about where diagnostics are heading. Battery State-of-Health testing has historically lived in specialist, high-cost equipment. Its arrival inside a mainstream, multi-brand CARS update is one more sign that EV capability is becoming table stakes rather than a premium add-on. For a shop planning its next purchase, the takeaway is straightforward: when you evaluate a diagnostic platform, ask whether it can read and report high-voltage battery health — not just engine codes and 12-volt voltage.
The tools that measure SoH, cell balance, and EV fault codes will age better as the vehicle parc electrifies. And because these capabilities now ship through software, an active software update service is as important as the hardware itself. A tool that is six months behind on its updates can quietly lose the ability to read the newest battery systems. Autocom is not the only vendor moving in this direction — but by making the feature free through 2026, it has set a clear marker that battery-health diagnostics belong in every multi-brand bay, not just the specialist EV shop.
For independent workshops, the message is simple. The vehicles are already arriving at the door; the question is whether the shop has the tooling to read their most expensive component. A battery State-of-Health check that runs through the same OBD workflow as the rest of the diagnosis is exactly the kind of quiet capability that separates shops ready for the EV transition from those that are still waiting for it to arrive.
Note: High-voltage battery work on electric and hybrid vehicles should only be carried out by qualified technicians following the manufacturer's safety procedures. A State-of-Health readout reflects the data the vehicle's battery management system reports and is one diagnostic input among several.
