REVEALED: Used electric car batteries – do I need to worry? | Electrifying

#electriccars #batteries #evbatteries
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So in this video I’m going to put your mind at rest and tell you everything you need to know about the largest and most important part of a used electric car - and explain why you really don’t need to worry.

It’s understandable that car buyers are concerned about the battery on a used electric car degrading over time. After all, we’re used to the power capacity of our gadgets shrinking over time, sometimes to the extent that you need to replace the battery to get you through the day.

Firstly, the batteries in an electric car are very different to what you’d find in a phone. Sure, they are made of the same stuff, but a car’s battery is designed to last the lifetime of the car and is exceptionally well protected and engineered to prolong their life.

When the new generation of electric cars appeared around a decade ago, there were rumours that the powerpacks would need replacing after three years or so, and would cost thousands to replace. But of course that turned out not to be true - there will be some degradation, but it should take many years before it starts to have an impact on how far your car can take you.

The current crop of electric car batteries lose around 5% of their capacity every 100,000 miles, and experience with very early electric cars suggests that a well looked after battery will be good for 300,000 miles. As a result, most come with extremely long warranties - up to 10 years in some cases.

Join Nicola as she delves into the world of used electric car batteries and explains why you really don’t need to worry about buying a used electric car.

Have you bought a used electric car? Were you worried before you did? As always, we love to hear what you think, so please let us know in the comments below.

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[johnharvey]

The issue is with some warranties, such as the VW warranty, is that it’s 70% capacity in 8 years or 100, 000 miles. However if the battery is faulty with some bad cells and drops 28% in the first year and stays at this level it’s still considered ok so not replaceable under warranty. These warranties need to be more flexible and have a maximum % capacity drop per year that is clear and easily understood. So 95% available capacity after one year or 20, 000 miles, 90% after two years or 40, 000 miles, 85% after three years or 60, 000 miles and so on reducing to the 70% figure at 8 years or 100, 000 miles. These are still relatively poor performance requirements but would provide a degree in confidence in EV battery reliability.

[nickbull]

We've run two EVs to around 100, 000 miles, both are first generation cars, one Nissan, and one Renault. In both cases they have rudimentary battery technology and thermal management, both vehicles retained around 90% of their original battery capacity. Newer cars will fair better.

[dracol]

Owners' data suggests that mileage is not the main factor, but time is. It doesn't matter if you drive 5000 miles a year, or 50, 000 miles a year, they still degrade roughly the same over time. Manufacturers know this, that's why they offer 8 years warranty, so the main question is how do these batteries fare on the years after?

[adamyoung]

Wow this is a really poor video. Very little information and a sales pitch.

[mansfield]

I'm all for electric but where did you get 130, 000 miles for a scrapped internal combustion engine from?

[johnkay]

I feel there should be a industry wide simple to read table or graphic to let the public know the condition of the Battery like a ICE car service history and MOT

[nvca]

Very well summarized ... so many people don't get that if the battery gets weaker after 8 or 10 years, unable to process max. current peaks like needed in an EV, the battery will still be a perfect storage element for a household or a tiny piece of a bigger energy cluster for solar or wind power. So after some 20 years they will be recycled up to 98% I believe I have read, because the lithium doesn't go bad, it just reshapes itself over time but stays inside the cell and can be reused for a new cell. So the environmental impact is magnitudes lower than most people think and we hope battery reseach will present batteries with even more power and less weight and volume that will give EVs as much range as the old combustion cars as well as faster charging speeds.
This year CATL will implement a battery that is supposed to be way better in that regard and we will see the real-life result of that very soon. I am sure BYD and others have not been sleeping either and there is a great future to come.

[joshuadoliveiro]

modern EVs still don't display their battery health in a simple percentage (like iPhones do). and for the concept of 'designed to last the lifetime of the car'... I wasn't born yesterday

[thezanzibarbarian]

It's obvious that you're going to say, _"There's nothing to worry about when buying a used EV regarding battery wear."_
*_It's like VW saying that their cars had good emissions._*
*If you didn't, it'd be like turkeys voting for Christmas.*

[pallettowngangster]

The risk for second hand car buyers is how they can sell the car later down the line.

There’s not much risk buying a 3 year old EV, but if you want to sell it a few years later you’ll be reaching the end of the warranty, and then who will buy it? You’ll be unlikely to sell it for much more than the resale value of the battery at that point, so potentially quite a big depreciation hit compared to ICE equivalents.

[scammellman]

The battery failed in My brother's 2015 Tesla model S after 260, 000 miles but the battery still had 6 weeks warranty left on it and Tesla replaced it with an updated battery, during the life of the old battery it only lost 10% in range .

[v]

Is this video paid by EV car manufacturers? 😁

[BrianFraser]

Its post warranty costs thats the issue, not mileage /usage as in the examples mentioned in the comments.
Tesla model S 2 weeks out of warranty and less than 100k £18, 000 to replace
You could buy a battery on E-bay @14k but it still needs fitting etc...

[purdy]

Wow you need to check your facts what a load of rubbish

[dADHDChannel]

Wait until solid state batteries come out in EVs every single one of the current models will be worth a big fat nothing

[robonaut-nyne]

Comparing the battery of an EV with the engine of an ICE car I think is wrong. The battery is the 'fuel' for the EV. The equivalent in a petrol or diesel car is the fuel tank. Both have to be charged/filled when empty. I think the motor of the EV should be compared with the motor of the ICE car.

[scottelkington]

I'm a huge EV advocate, but I've no idea where they got the 5% degradation after 100, 000 miles from?? Just not true. It's more like 10-15% on average after 100, 000 miles.

[RenaissanceManChild]

Maybe watch Bjørn Nyland's video a day ago on an ID4 with 24% degradation on 70k miles - which VW says is tickety boo..

[themusiqfreak]

We need used car searches to have electric specific filters... like being able to filter out anything that doesn't have a heat pump.

[sargfowler]

You might want to watch one of Bjorn's videos on EV batteries. He had a Tesla taxi that was supercharged a lot and it lost 16% after 245 charges and 98k kilometres.
There needs to be a huge infrastructure that will repair your battery just like garages currently repair ICE cars. It's just not there yet.