Should We Be Worried About EV Battery Life in the Long Run?

[Avnish001]

I’ve been driving my EV for over a year now, and while I absolutely love the experience—quiet ride, zero fuel costs, and low maintenance—something that’s been on my mind lately is battery degradation. Manufacturers promise 7–8 years of battery life, but real-world usage, climate, and charging habits can really affect it. I’m already noticing a slight dip in range after 15,000 km.

• How are your EV batteries holding up over time?
• Are you doing anything specific to slow down degradation—like charging to only 80%, avoiding fast charging often, etc.?
• Has anyone here had to replace a battery yet?

 

[jonescg]

Most battery degradation will be evident in the first few years, and it tapers off after that. The main enemy of battery health is the unholy trifecta of heat, high states of charge and time.

 

[Diggs]

Actually, real-world use show that EV batteries are having a longer life than predicted. The daily habits of short hops and partial charges are adding considerable battery life compared to expected results from lab tests.

 

[Dui ni shuo de dui]

I’ve been driving my EV for over a year now, and while I absolutely love the experience—quiet ride, zero fuel costs, and low maintenance—something that’s been on my mind lately is battery degradation. Manufacturers promise 7–8 years of battery life, but real-world usage, climate, and charging habits can really affect it. I’m already noticing a slight dip in range after 15,000 km.

• How are your EV batteries holding up over time?
• Are you doing anything specific to slow down degradation—like charging to only 80%, avoiding fast charging often, etc.?
• Has anyone here had to replace a battery yet?

I guess it depends on which brand, what battery chemistry and how you drive, but here in Shanghai we have a nice return of experience since pretty much all taxis have been converted to electric years ago.
It's not rare at all to see taxis with 350 000+ kilometers on the odometer and still doing just fine. I've discussed with many taxi drivers and all of them say that they had litterally zero maintenance to be done on their vehicles powertrains. The range doesn't seem to drift all that much either.
Taxis are probably the worst use case as they do complete charge/discharge cycles at maximum rates, they drive in every possible type of weather and they basically don't care about the car health because the cars don't really belong to them anyway.

It's unknown yet how long these batteries will last in terms of time, but in terms of cycles it is already way more than expected.

My black motorcycle battery (genuine A123 made in USA) has been manufactured in 2012 and it is still working perfectly well today in 2025. So far batteries seem to be more resilient than manufacturers announced, which is a good surprise.

 

[neptronix]

Great thing about taxi duty is that calendar years don't manage to age the battery, cycles do.
Prius batteries last forever ( mileage wise ) in taxis i hear.

Most lithium batteries in various things will die of calendar aging, not cycles.

Amazed to hear these A123s are still kicking, geez!

 

[ZeroEm]

My Nissan Leaf 2013 has original battery 24Kw. It's around 60%. Still will go 47miles. Was going to put in a new battery. Can only get a refurbished one. Nissan wants $21K, that means get another car. I know the battery was not built in 2013 more like 2012 so it's age is 13yrs. So I guess they last longer than 10yrs.

 

[neptronix]

$21k for a battery, geez. Are there any companies making aftermarket ones at this point, like they've done with hybrids?

 

[JackFlorey]

My Nissan Leaf 2013 has original battery 24Kw. It's around 60%. Still will go 47miles. Was going to put in a new battery. Can only get a refurbished one.

FYI there are several companies that are now rebuilding Leaf batteries; they are fairly simple to rebuild.

 

[ZeroEm]

FYI there are several companies that are now rebuilding Leaf batteries; they are fairly simple to rebuild.

There is one in San Antonio Now. It's $3500 to get the battery to 70%. It was over 70% when I bought the car. 67 miles on a full charge. That is 20 miles more than now. A bigger battery would be more miles per percent. Not worth it better to buy another used EV with a 40kw or more Battery. Decided to Quit driving automobiles. Bought the Car to share with my mother even 7yrs ago I only drove once a month now it's more like every six weeks. Texas has a $300 a year EV tax and now Insurance wants over a $100 a month for the most basic coverage. I'm not playing the Game. I can look into having the battery removed and getting the best cells could be up to 12kw. Need a home back up battery. That way I can get a few more years out of the batteries.