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 typical new automobile within the US is anticipated 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 take a look at 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 take a look at, and has now accomplished greater than 25,000 state-of-health exams utilizing its patented process. Based mostly on the information collected, DEKRA studies (by way of Electrive) that “the batteries of electrical vehicles are extra sturdy than shoppers typically concern.”
DEKRA’s speedy battery take a look at, which was launched in 2022, is at present 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 take a look at and a brief acceleration drive of round 50 to 100 meters.
The actual-world outcomes of a person take a look at are in comparison with the “parameterization” of the person automobile fashions, which incorporates information gathered from complicated take a look at drives underneath all kinds of circumstances. “This creates a sort of coordinate construction that our system makes use of to investigate and consider the precise measured values through the take a look at,” explains Christoph Nolte, Government Vice President of DEKRA. “The underside line is a press release on the battery situation that no different methodology in the marketplace can supply as shortly and similtaneously exactly.”
The rising information pool allows the DEKRA specialists to make extra common statements about battery ageing, 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 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 %.
“On common, we charged the automobiles about one and a half occasions a day, and never significantly gently, however all the time totally charged to offer the drivers the suitable degree 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 maintain their capability for a really very long time.”
Supply: Electrive
