How Often Do I Need To Replace The Battery?
Probably never if you’re the kind of person who would buy a new car (and keep it for fewer than 5 years), maybe once if you buy it used or keep it closer to a decade. If you do, it will likely be covered by the battery-specific warranty on your car.
The battery in your electric car is the heart of the vehicle. It powers everything from the lights to the air conditioning to the motor itself. Without a battery, your car would be nothing more than a very expensive paperweight. But like all batteries, the one in your car will eventually wear out and need to be replaced. But for many people, the question is: how often do you need to replace the battery in your car?
Important Preface
Electric vehicle battery replacement is a topic that receives a lot of bad-faith criticism. Before we dive into the specifics, it’s important to note that the lifespan of an electric car battery is highly dependent on many factors, but by and large, current owners of electric cars do not worry about replacing the battery. There are many cases where people will drive hundreds of thousands of miles on the same battery, albeit with some range degradation. While this is an important topic to consider, it is not a major concern for most prospective EV buyers, and most of the concern will come from those who either do not own an electric car or have other motivations for spreading misinformation.
I encourage you to think critically about information you get about electric cars, including this article! There are undoubtedly drawbacks to electric vehicles, such as it being difficult to own one if you live in an apartment, or having limited range for long trips, but needing to replace the battery is not typically one of them.
Since this topic is such a focus of misinformation, I will address some common misconceptions by addressing the questions that are typically raised.
”Electric car batteries only last a few years!”
This is one of the most frequently cited reasons as to why someone should not buy an electric car. People are used to phone batteries that lose meaningful amounts of maximum capacity after a year or two, and they expect the same to be true for EV batteries. However, car batteries are a different beast. They are designed to last for a long time, and have warranties to back it up.
The lifespan of a car battery can vary depending on several factors, including the type of battery, the climate you live in, and how often you drive your car. However, as a rule of thumb (which is also useful in other parts of life!) is that you can expect the average car battery to last as long, or slightly longer than the warranty period. As of today, most EV automakers offer 8 year warranties on their batteries, so you can expect them to last at least that long.
One other factor to note is that electric cars, especially with more advanced battery chemistries, are still fairly new and have not had their longevity tested in the real world yet. Time will tell whether we can expect them to last longer, but the early signs are promising.
”Replacing the battery will cost a fortune!”
This is another common concern, and it’s not entirely unfounded. Electric vehicle batteries are expensive, and replacing them can be a significant cost. However, most people will not need to pay out of pocket, as all electric cars come with a separate battery warranty when you purchase it new. These warranties tend to be quite generous, such as Tesla offering an 8-year/150,000 mile warranty on the batteries in their highest-end Model S and X, and 8-year/100,000 mile warranties for the base model Model 3 and Y.
Battery warranties tend to have a specific clause that guarantees a certain amount of capacity retention over the warranty period. If your battery degrades below that threshold, the manufacturer will replace it for you. Both Tesla and Rivian (as well as others in the industry) have set that threshold at 70% of the original capacity, which is a significant amount of degradation.
If you do need to pay out-of-pocked, EV batteries are extremely varied in their chemical composition and size which makes it difficult to give an exact cost. A quick search reveals that it could cost anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000, which is an extremely wide range. However, the most common price range for a battery replacement is between $5,000 and $10,000.
It is absolutely true that changing the battery on an electric car is likely to be far more expensive than changing the engine of a gas car, however the (in)frequency of the need to replace the EV battery combined with the savings from other maintenance like oil changes, make it pretty close price-wise in the long run. As well, we’ve seen dropping prices as battery technology evolves, so by the time you would need to replace the battery in a new EV, you’d likely see significantly reduced prices.
Conclusion
The battery in your electric car is likely to last a long time, and you probably won’t need to replace it. If you do, it will likely be covered by the warranty, and the cost of replacement is likely to be less than you think. If you’re considering buying an electric car, don’t let the fear of battery replacement hold you back. In this author’s opinion, it is not something you need to worry about.