Research finds EV batteries can last 20 years or more
New research has found that EV batteries can last for more than two decades, outlasting the usable life of a vehicle and allaying fears of battery issues with many prospective EV buyers.
Geotab Inc, a market leader in connected transportation solutions, has released new data that indicates electric vehicle (EV) batteries will now last 20 years or more.
The company analysed the battery health of almost 5,000 fleet and private EVs, representing nearly 1.5 million days of telematics data, to explore how the latest battery technology holds up to the rigours of daily use.
The data highlighted how batteries degrade, on average, by 1.8% per year – compared to 2.3% when Geotab last performed a wholesale analysis of EV battery health in 2019, and generally more slowly than internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrain components.
“With these higher levels of sustained health, batteries in the latest EV models will comfortably outlast the usable life of the vehicle and will likely not need to be replaced,” said David Savage, Vice President for the UK and Ireland at Geotab.
“However, 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. 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.”
A Geotab report from earlier this year found that two-thirds of vehicles (cars and vans) operated by private and public sector organisations in the UK are ready to go electric.
The ‘Taking Charge: On the Road to an EV Future’ report analysed driver data from 1.3 million vehicles across seven countries over 12 months, and also suggested that fleets could save an average of £13,279 per vehicle over seven years when replacing ICE vehicles with EVs.
One potentially surprising insight from the Geotab research is that high-use electric vehicles did not show significantly higher battery degradation than others. This should be welcome news to fleet operators in particular since EVs offer better value the more they are driven.
