As someone who has spent my entire life around cars, starting with one that was admittedly a little out of my league at 17 years of age — a BMW E34 — I’ve always had an insatiable appetite for “the next car”. Fast forward 21 years and I’m now driving what is essentially a dad-mobile: a Range Rover Sport L494. However, I’m quite determined to not spend another minute refuelling at a service station.
So unquestionably, the next car will be electric. As I researched my ideal electric family mover, I began to ponder, “How long do electric cars last?” A fair question, since my 10 year-old Range Rover Sport has pretty much outlived all speculation and stigma of mechanical faults – it still operates without so much as a creak. Can an EV last as long as my current vehicle?
Let’s take a look at a few factors that determine the lifespan of an electric vehicle.
Moving parts
The first factor is obviously the absence of an internal combustion engine. And with that, gone are the cooling, transmission, and exhaust systems. Why does this matter? Well, fewer moving parts mean fewer things can break. Even though EVs still have motors, they are far simpler in design and wear down far more slowly than internal combustion engines.
Imagine this: traditional cars have around 2,000 moving parts in their engine and transmission systems combined. EVs? Around 20. This is one of the reason why EVs tend to last longer than many people anticipate. It’s commonly said, for this reason alone, that you’d more likely long to change your electric vehicle before it breaks down on you.
Battery life and degradation
Batteries are the core of every electric vehicle and they’ve come a long way since the early days of the Nissan Leaf or Tesla Roadster. Battery degradation, although a valid concern for would-be EV owners, is not as dramatic as you’d think.
Based on a fleet research by Geotab with a sample size of 6,300 vehicles; it was determined that on average, EV batteries lose about 2% of their capacity per year. This means that after five years, you’re still looking at around 90% of the battery’s original capacity. Of course, this is an over-simplification because in reality, EV batteries degrade non-linearly. It’ll begin to degrade right out of the factory, then maintain a steady state for many years before reaching its end of life.
High temperatures
High temperatures heavily influence battery degradation. Whether it’s high ambient temperature or high voltage (fast) charging leading to higher battery internal temperature, studies show that batteries exposed to these temperatures degrade more quickly. Although many modern EVs are fitted with sophisticated battery management systems that help mitigate this, regular exposure to high temperature can cause the battery’s state of health to reduce faster than expected.
Build quality
The above discussion points assume that all EV batteries are equal, when in reality, they are not. The vary by manufacturer, and so does build quality. How long an EV is expected to last might also boil down to the quality of its manufacture. Tesla has been plagued by quality issues recently, so those vehicles may not have as long of a lifespan. Ultimately, the only way to fully understand how well a vehicle is made is to put it through long-term testing, which we will.
How long can an EV last?
If you’re conservative with your fast charging and considerate about where you park your EV (always in the the shade), then barring any major mechanical fault, your EV should last a very long time. Most EV manufacturers will back their batteries for an 8-year period or 160,000km — that’s 3 extra years beyond the vehicle warranty.
In reality, having to replace your EV battery is not very likely to occur. Across all EV models and years, only 2.5% of batteries have been replaced. Specifically, the replacement rate for any modern EV made after 2016 is below 1%. As battery technology continues to improve, the chances of you needing a replacement are very low.
Even if you do need to replace the battery after 8 years, a battery replacement is essentially a new lease on life for your EV. It not only restores full driving range, but also allows your car to remain on the road and operational for many years to come.
More mileage than you think
So, how long do electric cars last? The simple answer is a very long time. If you take good care of your battery by keeping it cool and using fast charging sparingly, it could easily last 15 to 20 years. Plus, with the option for a battery replacement down the line, your EV might just outlast your petrol-powered car by a solid margin.
