There’s no motive why checking battery life in your EV shouldn’t be simply so simple as checking the battery life in your cellphone. However, frustratingly, it’s not. And it’s comprehensible why that makes individuals edgy about shopping for a used EV.
The factor to recollect is that EV battery longevity is excellent lately, and as a tough information it is best to anticipate one (no matter whether or not it makes use of nickel-manganese-cobalt or lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry) to lose roughly 1.6% to 2.0% of capability annually.
You should purchase OBD-port readers which you could plug into an EV to be able to get a learn on its battery well being, however even that may be a bit inaccurate, because it’s affected by the battery’s temperature on the time you are taking the studying, whether or not it has been absolutely cycled previous to testing and the OBD machine’s personal vagaries.
It’s nonetheless completely value doing in the event you’re assured sufficient to take a tool alongside when viewing a automobile you’re contemplating, however even higher recommendation is to purchase from a good supplier who is joyful to supply an in depth report on the automobile’s battery well being.
As a tough information for battery well being and vary potential, you may after all go by the vary readout on the automobile’s sprint. Keep in mind that will probably be affected by how the automobile has been pushed beforehand, and a few fashions are quite optimistic when absolutely charged (early Stellantis EVs are significantly responsible of this).
Going by the automobile’s long-term effectivity and calculating vary from that tends to offer a extra real looking common real-world vary. Homeowners’ golf equipment are additionally an excellent place to ask for suggestions on a used EV’s real looking vary.
If battery well being is a priority, then a lower-mileage EV that hasn’t been rapid-charged too regularly is prone to be your best option, however don’t low cost high-mileage vehicles, as a result of you might be pleasantly shocked by the battery well being and real-world vary even on a well-used EV.
Certainly, I drove a nine-year-old, 260,000-mile Tesla Mannequin S that also had 84% of its unique battery capability remaining regardless of a life spent at Superchargers (Autocar, 6 November 2024).
