One of many beloved bugaboos bruited by EV boo-birds is that EV batteries will shortly put on out. Now that there are vital numbers of high-mileage EVs on the highway, this deceitful dirge has been definitively debunked. Automotive and Driver (amongst many different sources) estimates {that a} typical EV battery ought to final between 10 and 20 years (the common new automotive within the US is predicted to final 12.5 years). A latest examine by scientists on the SLAC-Stanford Battery Heart discovered that almost all EV batteries are prone to final even longer than researchers had beforehand forecast. Actual-world accounts of long-serving batteries, for instance in Tesla taxis, abound.
Scientific research and particular person anecdotes give us two views on battery longevity—a standardized check that measures the well being of a person EV’s battery provides us one more. German testing group DEKRA has developed simply such a check, and has now accomplished greater than 25,000 state-of-health exams utilizing its patented process. Based mostly on the info collected, DEKRA reviews (through Electrive) that “the batteries of electrical vehicles are extra sturdy than customers typically worry.”
DEKRA’s speedy battery check, which was launched in 2022, is at present accessible for round 130 completely different car fashions and is obtainable in a number of European nations. The process takes quarter-hour, and features a static check and a brief acceleration drive of round 50 to 100 meters.
The actual-world outcomes of a person check are in comparison with the “parameterization” of the person car fashions, which incorporates knowledge gathered from complicated check drives beneath all kinds of circumstances. “This creates a form of coordinate construction that our system makes use of to research and consider the precise measured values through the check,” explains Christoph Nolte, Government Vice President of DEKRA. “The underside line is an announcement on the battery situation that no different methodology available on the market can supply as shortly and concurrently exactly.”
The rising knowledge pool allows the DEKRA specialists to make extra normal statements about battery getting old, they usually say that “even with greater mileages, the overwhelming majority of traction batteries are nonetheless in good situation.” As one instance, DEKRA cites a fleet of Jaguar I-Tempo electrical taxis that went into service in Munich in 2018. DEKRA examined six of the autos in 2024, and located that, with mileages between 180,000 and 260,000 kilometers, the state of well being of the traction batteries was between 95 and 97 p.c.
“On common, we charged the autos about one and a half occasions a day, and never notably gently, however all the time absolutely charged to offer the drivers the suitable degree of security by way of vary,” mentioned Gregor Beiner, Managing Director of the Munich Taxi Centre (MTZ). “The batteries are very, very sturdy and, particularly with the protection buffers that the producers set up, they maintain their capability for a really very long time.”
Supply: Electrive
