July 24, 2025 - EV Batteries Holding Up Well

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for July 24, 2025 and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.

One of the top reasons that car buyers give for not buying an electric vehicle is the fear that they may have to spend upwards $10-20,000 or more to replace the battery after just a couple of years. Based on our experience with the batteries in consumer electronics devices like phones that rarely last more than about 2-3 years, that's not an unreasonable fear, but it is unfounded. The reality is that with one notable exception, EV batteries have been found to hold up much better than expected. 

David Blenkle of Santa Cruz California bought a Ford Mustang Mach-E owner in 2022 to use for ride hailing. In three years, he has accumulated more than 250,000 miles on the car and the battery still has 92% of its original capacity and will go 290 miles on a full charge.  The owner of a Hyundai Ioniq 5 with more than 360,000 on the original battery still has more than 87% of the original capacity.  The website Recurrent tracks battery health data from tens of thousands of members and has found that at 100,000 miles, batteries typically still have at least 90% of their original capacity. Recurrent has also found that apart from battery recalls for quality issues like the Chevrolet Bolt, only 2.5% of the EVs since 2010 and less than 1% of EVs since 2015 have ever needed a battery replacement. 

The one exception to this is the first generation Nissan Leaf which used an air-cooled battery pack. Almost all other EVs use liquid cooled battery packs which helps to prevent damage to the battery in hot weather. Early Leafs which were most sold in southern states often had severe battery degradation and often had replacements. 

EV manufacturers offer warranties on the battery of 8-10 years and at least 100,000 miles which combined with the demonstrable durability should give buyers of both new and used EVs confidence. 

Thanks for listening.