EV Batteries Can Outlast A Vehicle’s Lifetime With Minimal Degradation, Study Finds
“Batteries in the latest EV models will comfortably outlast the usable life of the vehicle and will likely not need to be replaced.” That’s what David Savage, Vice President for the UK and Ireland at Geotab said in the company’s latest study that looked at how EV batteries degrade over time.
Geotab is a Canada-based fleet management company that, among other things, analyzes telematics data from electric vehicles. In 2019, the firm reported that EV batteries degrade by 2.3% on average every year. Now, though, there’s a new study that shows things are even better.
After looking at the battery health of almost 5,000 fleet and private EVs representing nearly 1.5 million days of telematics data, Geotab found that the average annual degradation rate of modern electric vehicle batteries is just 1.8%. That’s 22% better than five years ago and, more comforting, the top-performing vehicles have a battery degradation rate of just 1% per year.
“We still see battery reliability being used as a stick to beat EVs with. Hopefully, data like ours can finally put these myths to bed,” Savage said. “The fact is that a 1.8% decline in battery health is unlikely to have a significant impact on most driver’s daily vehicle needs, and this number will only come down further with new EV models and improved battery technology. People should feel confident that many current EVs are suitable and cost-effective to replace a range of light, medium and heavy-duty ICE vehicles.”
