What happens to EV batteries after 5 years
Monthly Myth: Your EV battery mustbe replaced in 5 to 10 years
The battery in your electric car will last beyond its eight-year warranty. But given all the rampant battery life myths, how would you know that? Lets look at the facts.
At the heart of every vehicle is an energy source to drive the wheels. For internal combustion engines (ICE), its a tank of gas that burns to release required energy. For an electric vehicle (EV), itsa battery charged with electrons that providesenergy to an electric motor.
The myth
A gas tank is a hardy component that can be tricky to replace but is not terribly expensive. An EV battery is a large and complex subsystem formed to the underside of the vehicle in a skateboard-like configuration. Unlike gas tanks, batteries make up approximately 40 percent of the value of an electric car.
Therefore, prospective EV buyers are often concerned about the complexity, life span, and replacement cost of the battery. They hear it needs to be replaced in five to 10 years, but thats just not true. Lets myth-bust this one-by-one.
EVs arent like phones
Most people who have experience with smartphones are aware that lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries lose their capacity to hold charge over time. These folks worry that an EVs battery will behave in the same way. However unlike a smartphone, an EV battery consists of multiple AA-battery-like containersthat in most cases are supported by a Battery Management System. It automatically keeps the battery at an optimum temperature for a long life, at 70 degrees, where humans too are at their happiest.
An EVs batterys life can be maintained when it is not always charged to 100% and is not sitting empty for long. Most EVs have a user interface that informs the owner of the batterys charge level. Keeping an eye on the batterys health is a simple routine behavior for an EV owner.
EVs smart charge
Smartphone batteries are charged every day and degrade considerably after a few years. The average EV driver charges an EV just a few times per month. EVs also charge in a much smarter fashion, replenishing just depleted cells. This distributes the load across many thousands of cells that make up the whole battery.
Data gleaned from multiple Tesla owners has shown a mere 10% average battery degradation after over 160,000 miles. Most ICE cars are on the scrap heap long before they complete such mileage. Indeed, most people only keep their vehicles for approximately six years.
Cleaner sourcing extends use
More and more batteries are now manufactured from metals other than cobalt. These new metals not only last longer in batteries, they also address anxiety that prospective EV shoppers have had about the use of child labor in the cobalt mining process. In fact, the EV industry is more responsibly-sourced of late, and has a higher percentage of recycled components. The 2018 Tesla Model 3 battery consists of 2.9% cobalt. It is predicted that cobalt-free batteries could reach the market by 2025.
Interestingly, most plug-in vehicle makers are working with other battery types (such as lithium-iron-phosphate and lithium-manganese) which have inherent safety advantages and provide more years of service.
Used batteries see a second life
Another favorite anti-EV argument is that recycling Li-ion batteries is difficult, expensive or even flat-out impossible. However that is not the case. Recycling International reports that some 97,000 tons of Li-ion batteries were recycled in 2018, and over 1 GWh worth are currently serving in second-life applications.
500% less likely to catch fire
Finally, when news of an EV battery fire hits the headlines, fears are raised in the minds of buyers. To put the risk in perspective, UK data from 2019 obtained by Air Quality News revealed that the London Fire Brigade dealt with just 54 EV fires compared to 1,898 petrol and diesel fires.
Similarly, so far in 2020, London fire services have dealt with 1,021 petrol and diesel fires and just 27 EV fires.
As Elon Musk himself tweeted: Teslas, like most electric cars, are over 500% less likely to catch fire than combustion engine cars, which carry massive amounts of highly flammable fuels.
90% after 200k miles
Tesla's 2019 impact report showed that the majority of Model S and X cars had more than 90% battery life after 200,000 miles of driving.
Not surprisingly, the majority of manufacturers are so confident in the durability of their EV batteries that they offer a battery warranty thats usually 100,000 miles or eight years for 70% capacity. At the recent European Conference on Batteries, Elon Musk reported that batteries under development will give EVs 620 miles of range and a 15-year life. He also announced advances that will allow Tesla to slash battery manufacturing costs, speeding a global shift to renewable energy.
Conclusion
The facts show that EV batteries are very durable and warrantied for approximately eight years. Although range will degrade slightly over time, the battery will not need replacement for at least eight years, and will likely be totally acceptable for normal use far beyond that. Concerns about battery life should not dissuade potential buyers from purchasing an EV.
However, when they do get over this battery myth, these buyers may assume there are limited EV models to choose from. Next month well take a crack at that myth.
What Happens to the Old Batteries in Electric Cars?
The worry for most environmentally conscious people is that there isnt a system in place to deal with these decommissioned parts. After all, lithium-ion battery packs often run the length of the cars wheelbase, weigh close to 1,000 pounds, and are made up of toxic elements. Can they easily be recycled or are they destined to pile up in landfills?
Electric car batteries arent very difficult to get rid of because even if theyve outlasted the usefulness for an electric car, theyre still worth quite a lot to someone, says Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports senior director of auto testing. Theres a strong demand for secondary-life batteries. Its not like when your gas-powered engine dies and it goes to the scrapyard. For example, Nissan is using old Leaf batteries to power mobile machines in its factories around the world.
Nissan Leaf batteries are also being used to store energy on solar grids in California, Fisher says. Once solar panels capture energy from the sun, they need to be able to store that energy. The old EV batteries may no longer be optimal for driving but theyre still capable of energy storage.
Even as secondary-life batteries fully degrade after various uses, minerals and elements like cobalt, lithium, and nickel in them are also valuable and can be used to produce new EV batteries.
With EV technology still in relative infancy, the only certainty is that recyclability needs to be built into the manufacturing process to ensure that EVs remain eco-friendly throughout the entire life cycle of the product.
Despite the concern about a potential costly repair when replacing these batteries, we havent seen it as a common issue in our exclusive car reliability data. Such problems are rare.
This article has been adapted from an episode ofTalking Cars.
How Is the Battery Degradation of the Tesla Model S After 10 Years on the Roads?
Photo: rogbmw via TMC forum
We already know that Tesla Li-Ion batteries
can hold a chargeeven after many years of abuse. This was also confirmed by a Tesla Motor Club user who is preparing to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Model S 85D.
For many people, Li-Ion batteries in electric vehicles are a big no because they know the same batteries in cellphones and laptops dont last very much. The thing is, theyre not the same batteries. Despite the poor experience of early Nissan Leaf owners, Li-Ion batteries in most electric vehicles can power the car for many years before they run out of juice. In fact,
EVowners are more likely to replace their vehicles by that time than the battery.
We know the perspective of replacing the high-voltage battery in an electric vehicle is terrifying for most people, regardless of their wealth, considering
the high prices. But most EV makers offer an eight-year warranty on the battery, with 100,000 miles/150,000 km limits that most EV owners would never reach. Many battery-powered cars have passed these milestones without issues, so Li-ion batteries are usually much more robust than most people think.
The Tesla Model S is already past its 10th anniversary, and the first examples have
traveled impressive distances. Its a good moment to pause and look back, understanding how the car (especially the battery) is holding out after all this time. Thankfully, a Tesla Model S 85D owner shared their experience on the Tesla Motor Club forum, and other users chimed in to share their stories.
According to the post on the
forum, the user rogbmw took delivery of the car in February 2013, so its not exactly a 10-year car, but its pretty close to being one. Its an early Model S model with a 40xx VIN and an 85-
kWhbattery. Like many
early examples, it had its fair share of problems, and Tesla had to replace the battery pack and the drive unit under warranty during the first year of ownership.
Rogbmw charged the Model S daily, even though they did not travel that much, having accumulated only 102,000 miles (164,000 km). All the charging was done at home using the 25-amp charger to 90% SoC, with rare road trips (around three times per year) that required a 100% charge. This usage is very close to the recommended charging habits for Tesla vehicles with a ternary battery, and rogbmws experience validates these recommendations.
According to their records, the cars range dropped from the initial 264 miles (425 km) to 248-250 miles (around 400 km). This equals a battery degradation of 6% over nine years, which is impressive. Other forum users added to this experience with their own records of battery degradation. For a 5-year-old Model S owner who drove about 130,000 miles (209,000 km), the degradation reached 12%.
Another forum user with a 2012 Tesla Model S shared a different story. After crossing the 220,000-mile mark (354,000 km), his battery capacity has decreased to 217 miles (349 km). This represents a more significant 18% degradation, although this is not really an issue for them. After all, they kind of expected this to happen after so many miles. Their battery still has 82% capacity left, which is a good value after ten years. Most users mentioned battery degradations between 6% and 13% for similar use-case scenarios, so this mustve been an exception.
The Tesla Model S has good prospects of enduring many miles and years without losing a significant battery capacity. This should give a little peace of mind to those considering buying an electric vehicle, especially as the
battery tech has evolvedover the years. Wed love to learn about your experience if you own an electric car.
What happens to EV batteries after they can't be used in cars?
Battery SoH is an absolute measureand will become the currency of battery trading in the future. Although EV drivers focus on SoC, because it tells them if they have enough power to reach their destination, the measure that really matters in economic terms is SoH.
What could happen to EVbatteries after their SoHdrops below 70%?
A battery at 70% SoH may no longer be suitable for use in an EV, but it will be very useful in a 'second life'battery energy storage system (BESS) for several years (at least five) until it reaches 50% SoH, at which point its no longer commercially useful. The industrial knee-point has been reached.
The BESS market is about to take off dramatically, just like other technologies have, such as computing power, network capacity and data storage.
For example, the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia, completed at 150MW/194MWh, held the title of the worlds largest BESS for just three years. It was surpassed last year by theGateway Energy Storage in California, which has a huge storage capacity of 230MWh, last year.
But this is less than half the capacity of the new Tesla plant planned at Moss Landing inCalifornia, at 730MWh. All of them, however, will be dwarfed by the 1500MW/6000MWh installation that was given approval in October, also in Moss Landing, for Vistra Energy.
It's the BESS market that is revolutionising the energy market, allowing energy from renewable sources of wind, sun and water to be stored.
This dramatic increase in the size and number of large BESSsmirrors growth in the small BESS market for domestic use, such as the Tesla Powerwall and the UK's Powervault.
