Electric Car Batteries Run Longer Than Expected

There are many justified, but also unjustified, reservations about electric cars. DEKRA has now looked at how severely the health of the batteries is impaired in the long term and has come to a surprising conclusion. ford

DEKRA tests battery health in electric cars

For many drivers, electric cars are not a serious alternative to combustion engines. One reason among many that is often cited is the battery’s declining health over time. As the battery is repeatedly charged, its capacity continues to decrease. Skepticism is particularly high when it comes to used electric cars. The testing company has developed its own rapid battery testing procedure and has now used it to test the batteries of over 25,000 vehicles. Even at higher mileages, the vast majority of drive batteries are still in good condition.

Good health even after heavy use

Among other things, the electric vehicles of a Munich electric taxi company were tested. The Jaguar I-Pace’s batteries have had a mileage of between 180,000 and 260,000 kilometers over the past six years. Afterwards, the health of the batteries was an astonishing 95 to 97 percent. The vehicles were not charged infrequently or carefully, as the operator reports.

On average, we charged the vehicles about one and a half times a day, not particularly gently, but always completely full, in order to give the drivers the appropriate level of security in terms of range. Gregor Beiner, Managing Director Mtz

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Not all batteries are the same

According to DEKRA, many users are influenced by their experiences with batteries from other electrical devices. But car batteries are significantly longer lasting than other batteries.

For example, many people transfer their experiences with smartphone batteries to the topic of electromobility. They have experienced that mobile devices have a noticeably lower battery capacity after just a few years, and they fear the same effect with electric vehicles. Our experience with the rapid battery test shows significantly longer usage times. The drive batteries are very good overall. Even at higher mileages, in most cases we still see a ‘state of health’ of over 90 percent. Christoph Nolte, Executive Vice President of DEKRA

The individual battery health of course depends on several factors such as driving style, charging behavior and also the climate, which cause the battery to age faster or slower. Nevertheless, the results of DEKRA’s rapid battery test procedure confirm that most batteries still have a health level of “over 90 percent” even after several years and under demanding conditions. This is certainly good news for the used electric car market.