Electric cars may last longer than you think

“We see differences between different vehicle makes and models,” Argue continued. There are other factors as well. “To date, we have not seen a significant impact of high mileage on degradation rates, so you shouldn’t be afraid to use your electric vehicle.” This finding is consistent with P3’s study.

“But we did see a correlation with the frequency of DC fast charging,” Argue warns. “Cars that are regularly fast-charged have a significantly increased rate of degradation.”

Hot weather is also a factor that affects durability. “The worst case scenario is threefold for a particular model driven in hot climates and using fast charging frequently,” Argue said. This means a loss of 5.4% of battery capacity every year. However, “the best have an average degradation of 1% per year. That’s definitely a positive trend we’re seeing.”

“As the electric vehicle market begins to take shape, there are major concerns about the factors that could lead to battery degradation,” said Neil Cawse, CEO of Geotab. “For example, completely discharging the battery, charging in cold weather versus warm weather, using high-speed charging versus low-speed charging. But battery technology has gotten much better, especially in terms of management systems—for example, ensuring that lithium-ion cells charge properly when cold.”

This better battery performance can result in a longer warranty period for higher remaining capacity. Toyota has launched a 10-year warranty for electric vehicle batteries and MG is testing it lifetime guarantee in Thailand. “In general, you still have guarantees that promise 70 percent good health after eight years, but the level of degradation we see in those batteries is much less,” Wallace said.

Your electric car can still work well after 20 years

However, research to date has relied on how a car’s system reports battery health. “I would disregard all of those values,” Wallace said. “The health status reported on the dashboard that customers see is often significantly different from what is actually The health condition is from that battery.” According to a report Published by Elysia by 2023, real health conditions could differ by up to 9% from what is reported.

Another issue is the buffer that manufacturers leave in their batteries, which is the difference between actual capacity and total capacity in kWh. “OEMs are making these batteries way too big,” Wallace said. However, Argue explains that “there has to be some safety buffer, because what we know from battery science is that if the battery is full or empty for long periods of time, that causes more stress . Having a buffer will protect the battery from degradation.”

Wallace believes this buffer is too conservative, given the low degradation of EV batteries. “They don’t need a lot of excess capacity,” he said. “A smaller buffer means a smaller battery, which reduces the cost of electric vehicles.” The problem is, Wallace believes many traditional automakers still don’t have the necessary data on their own batteries to take this step.

However, if batteries continue to last as studies from P3 and Geotab imply, electric vehicles could be in better shape than internal combustion engine vehicles of the same range and age. The rest of the electric vehicles are also less expensive to run. “The cost of Significantly lower maintenance,” Cawse said. “You service the brake pads and replace the wipers—that’s it.”

A 10 year old electric car can still be as good as new and a 20 year old electric car can still be very good. It could be another disruption for the auto industry, which relies heavily on cars going to scrapyards every 15 years.