When someone is going to buy an electric car, their first concern is usually the battery life. It is not for less, because we are talking about an element that can represent between 50 and 70% of the value of this type of car. As with mobile phones, when an electric battery wears out, the autonomy is reduced and that can be a problem. The problem is that these types of vehicles have been on the market for a relatively short time to know the evolution and reliability of this key component.
Although in a recent study that has taken a sample of 15,000 electric cars It has been possible to extract quite interesting data. Despite the fact that most of these models have been on the road for less than six years, recalls with battery replacement have been studied, the degradation they have in some of the most popular models or how are the specific guarantees for that element . It must be taken into account that since it begins to be used, the battery it’s going to start to wear out, it is something unavoidable. But the new ones are more complex and resistant.
Manufacturers often say that their car batteries they should last between 15 and 20 years, that is, the entire useful life of the vehicle. In any case, their guarantees are more extended than the generic ones, being in many cases in a minimum of eight years and 160,000 kilometers with a capacity greater than 70%. If this data is not met, it should be replaced free of charge by the manufacturer. Although the truth is that it does not usually happen in many cases, it seems that they last much longer than expected. Almost all electric ones maintain the same battery with which they left the factory, with a few exceptions.
there has only been two massive recalls battery related. The first model was the Chevrolet Bolt in 2017 and the second the Hyundai Kona Electric in 2019. In both cases they were covered by the manufacturer in a solvent manner and without repercussions for the users. However, apart from these more extensive substitutions, the rest usually maintain the battery well and the usual thing is that only change by less than 5% of the vehicles. Those that are close to that figure are some more long-lived such as the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S, which have been on the market for more years.
In any case, it has been seen that the degradation of batteries It has improved a lot as technology has advanced.. Taking into account several models of the best-selling electric models, it has been seen that in the first kilometers there was a more pronounced wear that caused the autonomy to be reduced, although in a minority way. However, after 50,000 kilometers the trend is to stabilize and that there is hardly any loss of autonomy. It all varies a bit based on model and capacity, but it’s a pretty widespread trend.
Therefore, the battery life of an electric car It’s not something to worry about too much. to the potential buyer, since it has been improving remarkably over the years and surely the next technologies will be even higher in both performance and resistance.
