Study: EV batteries can outlast typical ICE car's lifespan

The study data has come from analyzing over 10,000 EVs.

There has been considerable discussion and speculation regarding the lifespan and degradation of EV batteries. While many claim that batteries have a short lifespan and will not last more than a couple of years, a new survey on EV battery health reveals some interesting findings.

According to Geotab, a UK company providing vehicle telematics, most EV batteries can last 20 years with minimal annual degradation. That’s six years more than the average car age in the United States. Over this timeline, EV batteries undergo about 1.8% degradation per year. That means that one will lose 1.8% of the original range every year. After 20 years, if nothing goes catastrophically wrong, one can still enjoy 64% of an EV’s original range. The study data has come from analyzing over 10,000 EVs.

That said, high-voltage EV batteries do fail, but the failure rate is statistically insignificant. Another study says EVs made in the last decade have had a battery failure rate of less than 0.5%.

Battery degradation is also location-dependent. Hot climates do increase batter degradation. However, Modern EVs have efficient cooling and heating systems to keep the battery’s temperature in check. Still, it is better to keep the EV in the shade when charging. It also leads to issues with DC fast charging, which marginally increases the degradation rate compared to Level 1 and Level 2 slow charging.

To prolong battery life, it is recommended to keep the SOC between 20% and 80% on nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries. This limitation generally doesn’t apply to lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, but a study has shown that constantly topping off an LFP battery pack could potentially reduce its lifespan.

Source: Inside EVs