Battery Council International celebrates its centenary today (21 March) and association president Roger Miksad told BEST in an interview marking the anniversary there are two “pinnacle achievements” in its history that stand out.
He said: “The first is the creation of the BCI Group Size scheme, which brought sanity, particularly in the 1950s to the aftermarket replacement market.” That gave consumers the ability to buy the exact size battery to fit their car.
It was not so much a certified standard as a standardised naming nomenclature for battery sizes, he added.
The second crowning achievement was really incubating and creating the legal framework in the US for the 99% recycling system. “BCI was the driving force behind the legal framework for that. And it’s an unmatched and unparalleled recycling system in the world and for any product,” he claimed.
He said BCI has long punched above its weight in the industry because it is able to leverage its members and the work they do. And if it had more resources? “I think with more resources we could have done more advocacy and really telling the story of the industry to folks who don’t read battery industry trade rags, as it were.” (Rag? No offence taken, ed.)
Miksad acknowledged the criticism, also from within his association’s own ranks, that the lead battery industry still has to convince the world of its positive story.
He said lead as a metal has a reputation as a toxic substance and in the past was not always handled or used appropriately (lead paint, lead pipes, for example).
“But look, lead belongs in a battery and really nowhere else.” Can the industry do more? “I think we can always do more on behalf of our members in terms of telling the good story that they’ve developed.”
Photo: Roger Miksad points to two “pinnacle achievements” in BCI’s centenary. Here seen addressing BCI in Louisville in 2023.
