Running costs of electric cars vs petrol cars according to size

Arran Cameron:

GTB:

I think you will find a spare battery will be required before the current EV vehicles get to fifteen years old for sure in fact a lot sooner especially those that use fast chargers, but nobody appears to factor those costs in.

That is potentially the Achilles Heel of electric cars. Do you think that owners will experience battery obsolescence and situations where it becomes unviable to buy a new battery for an old car?


Could a situation be reached in the future where it's impossible to buy a replacement battery that fits a 40 year old electric car?

So far, nobody really knows how long the batteries last, because so few of them have failed yet.  In practice the batteries slowly deteriorate, so an old EV may be relegated to duties as a second car, where it's only used for local journeys.


The average life of a vehicle in the UK is only about 13 years.  So if batteries last 15 years, that's not a great problem.  There aren't many people who drive 40 year old cars.


Early Nissan Leafs are known for having rather poor thermal management of the batteries, so a few of the early ones are now starting to fail.  A cottage industry has sprung up to refurbish them.  Garages are buying the battery packs from scrapped Leafs, opening them up and testing the cells inside.  If a poorly Leaf is brought in, the mechanic can swap out individual cells that are failing for good second-hand ones.  The car won't be as good as new, but it will be usable for a few more years.

Arran Cameron:

GTB:

I think you will find a spare battery will be required before the current EV vehicles get to fifteen years old for sure in fact a lot sooner especially those that use fast chargers, but nobody appears to factor those costs in.

That is potentially the Achilles Heel of electric cars. Do you think that owners will experience battery obsolescence and situations where it becomes unviable to buy a new battery for an old car?


Could a situation be reached in the future where it's impossible to buy a replacement battery that fits a 40 year old electric car?

So far, nobody really knows how long the batteries last, because so few of them have failed yet.  In practice the batteries slowly deteriorate, so an old EV may be relegated to duties as a second car, where it's only used for local journeys.


The average life of a vehicle in the UK is only about 13 years.  So if batteries last 15 years, that's not a great problem.  There aren't many people who drive 40 year old cars.


Early Nissan Leafs are known for having rather poor thermal management of the batteries, so a few of the early ones are now starting to fail.  A cottage industry has sprung up to refurbish them.  Garages are buying the battery packs from scrapped Leafs, opening them up and testing the cells inside.  If a poorly Leaf is brought in, the mechanic can swap out individual cells that are failing for good second-hand ones.  The car won't be as good as new, but it will be usable for a few more years.