Electric car batteries are lasting longer than expected, according to the largest-ever UK used EV battery study, conducted by battery health experts Generational.
The firm analysed 8,000 EVs across 36 manufacturers, aged between 0 and 12 years and ranging from 0 to more than 160,000 miles. Experts discovered that the average state of health (SoH) of the batteries, all ages considered, was 95 per cent – well above the 70 per cent usually stipulated by manufacturer warranties as the grounds for battery replacement.
In fact, even the oldest EVs, aged between eight and 12 years, showed a median battery SoH of 85 per cent; the lowest 25th percentile showed an average battery SoH of 82 per cent, while the best-maintained models of this age group still retained 90 per cent of their original capacity.
Generational’s CEO, Paul Philpott, said: “The data definitively shows that EV batteries are performing far better than many consumers and industry stakeholders have been led to believe.
“With an average State of Health of more than 95 per cent, and even older vehicles comfortably exceeding warranty thresholds, the underlying fundamentals are extremely strong.”
One interesting learning point from the study is that a car’s mileage isn’t always an indicator of its battery’s SoH; Generational found that EV examples with much more than well over 100,000 miles on their clocks “frequently return 88-95 per cent battery health, challenging traditional age-and-mileage valuation models”.
Leave a comment