Do Electric Car Batteries Last?
Yes – it is likely that your Electric Car battery will outlive your car and you’re unlikely to see a noticeable reduction in range.
When the earliest modern Electric Cars hit the road back in 2011, newspapers, magazines and TV shows were filled with scare stories about batteries being dead in 5 years and choking up landfill with toxic waste. It became a common statement on shows like Top Gear.
Nobody knew how long Electric Car batteries would really last – not even the manufacturers, who hedged their bets with battery leasing schemes, and it was easy to distrust the technology and expect the worst.
As the years flew by and technology evolved, however, Electric Car batteries proved to be far more reliable than anyone had expected.
Early 2011 Leafs and iMievs did have some issues. Find one of these pioneer machines from 2009-2012 and there’s a good chance that they’ll be missing a few miles of range. But technology moved on at breakneck speed and the problems which plagued those early cars were soon fixed.
New chemistries minimised dendrite growth and made the electrolytes more resistant to damage. Heating and cooling coils were introduced to keep the battery cells at their preferred temperature. Battery health software was developed to manage charge rates, balance the cells and create buffers so that the battery is never charged to full or depleted to empty.
By the time that cars like the BMW i3 hit the market in 2014, battery life had stopped being a major concern.
Sadly, the scare stories of those early days continued to float about on the web.
The reality of today is that Electric Car batteries – even second hand ones – have proven to be very reliable.
In 2020, a Renault Zoe used as a Taxi in Turkey was reported to have traveled 340,000km (211000 miles) with only a 4% drop in projected range. That’s nearly 30 years of average UK driving with only 7 miles of range lost.
In the same year, Tesla announced that its car batteries were now so reliable that they could last over a Million miles without replacement. They will soon release a car where the battery is a structural part of the vehicle and can’t be removed or replaced. It won’t need to be.
Buying any Electric Car registered after 2014 should deliver a machine with a battery that will last well into the future without losing miles of range. Many second hand Electric Cars are still covered by their original battery warranties, many of which were rated for at least 8 years.
What You Need To Know About Electric Car Batteries
If you are concerned about the battery of an Electric Car you’re considering, ask the dealer to check the battery’s State Of Health for you – it should be very simple for them to do.
Remember, all Electric Cars have software-limited buffers that keep the driver from using the full capacity. If the battery is missing a few percentage points this could be missing from the buffer and not actually affect the distance you’re able to drive. Ask about this.
Also remember that the battery will be less efficient in the winter and won’t go as far. Keep this in mind and ask the seller what they’ve found the realistic winter range to be. Make sure that the winter range meets your needs. When summer swings by again, “lost” winter range will return – it’s not a fault.
If you’re able to, take a long test drive to see what the range is for yourself.
Electric motoring is becoming commonplace and the technology is increasingly mature. If you want to step into an electric future there’s never been a better time.
There’s never been a better time to buy a new or used car. There are hundreds of thousands of brilliant new and pre-loved cars out there just waiting for a new driver to put them on the road.
You could be that driver. Buying the car you need at a price you can afford means getting the Very Best Deal on your Car Finance.
Representative example:
Borrowing £9,000 over 60 months with a representative APR of 21.9%, an annual interest rate of 21.9% (Fixed) and a deposit of £0.00, the amount payable would be £238.28 per month, with a total cost of credit of £5,296.90 and a total amount payable of £14,296.90
Useful Links for Electric Car Research
Useful Mild Hybrid Car Links
Mild Hybrid Cars
What is mild Hybrid
Does a mild hybrid save fuel?
Do Mild Hybrids have a battery?
Useful Hybrid Car links
Hybrid Cars
How Does A Hybrid Car Work?
Can I still drive a Hybrid Cars after 2030?
Do Hybrids work on Electricity Alone?
How Long do Hybrid Car Batteries Last?