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 street, this deceitful dirge has been definitively debunked. Automobile 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 anticipated to final 12.5 years). A latest research by scientists on the SLAC-Stanford Battery Heart discovered that almost all 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 offers us yet 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 experiences (by way of Electrive) that “the batteries of electrical vehicles are extra sturdy than customers generally worry.”
DEKRA’s fast battery check, which was launched in 2022, is presently obtainable for round 130 totally 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 complicated 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, Govt Vice President of DEKRA. “The underside line is an announcement on the battery situation that no different methodology in the marketplace can supply as shortly and concurrently exactly.”
The rising information pool allows the DEKRA consultants to make extra basic statements about battery ageing, and so they say that “even with larger 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 automobiles 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 automobiles about one and a half instances a day, and never significantly gently, however all the time absolutely charged to offer the drivers the suitable degree of security when it comes to vary,” stated Gregor Beiner, Managing Director of the Munich Taxi Centre (MTZ). “The batteries are very, very sturdy and, particularly with the security buffers that the producers set up, they keep their capability for a really very long time.”
Supply: Electrive
