One of many beloved bugaboos bruited by EV boo-birds is that EV batteries will rapidly 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 typical new automobile within the US is predicted to final 12.5 years). A latest research by scientists on the SLAC-Stanford Battery Middle discovered that the majority EV batteries are more likely 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 checks utilizing its patented process. Based mostly on the info collected, DEKRA reviews (through Electrive) that “the batteries of electrical automobiles are extra sturdy than shoppers typically worry.”
DEKRA’s speedy battery check, which was launched in 2022, is presently obtainable for round 130 completely different automobile fashions and is obtainable in a number of European international locations. The process takes quarter-hour, and features a static check and a brief acceleration drive of round 50 to 100 meters.
The true-world outcomes of a person check are in comparison with the “parameterization” of the person automobile fashions, which incorporates information gathered from advanced check drives underneath all kinds of situations. “This creates a type of coordinate construction that our system makes use of to research and consider the precise measured values throughout 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 provide as rapidly and concurrently exactly.”
The rising information pool allows the DEKRA consultants to make extra common statements about battery getting old, and so they 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 %.
“On common, we charged the autos about one and a half occasions a day, and never significantly gently, however at all times totally charged to present the drivers the suitable stage of security when it comes to 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 keep their capability for a really very long time.”
Supply: Electrive
