For years, the fear of an electric car battery failing prematurely has been one of the great brakes to make the leap to this type of vehicles. And although they are still systems with a good margin for improvement, the technology has advanced a lot since the Nissan Leaf It was first put into circulation in 2010. In fact, several recent studies based on real data from hundreds of thousands of cars suggest that this fear was, to some extent, unjustified.
Why it is important. The cost of replacing a battery is one of the main reasons why many buyers are still wary of electric vehicles. In fact, according to a 2025 survey by the firm AutoPacific shared According to the Wall Street Journal, the fear of having to pay for a battery replacement is the number one reason why potential buyers rule out an electric vehicle.
In detail. The most recent datacompiled by the analysis firm Recurrent from thousands of real vehicles in circulation, show that an average electric vehicle retains around 95% of its original range after five years of use. And the trend improves the newer the car, since according to the study, 2026 models retain an average of 97% of their autonomy after three years and 95% after five.
The difference with the first electric ones is even more striking if you look at the battery replacement rate. One in twelve electric cars manufactured between 2011 and 2016 had to change their battery at some point. Among those manufactured from 2022 onwards, that figure has fallen to 0.3%, according to the same Recurrent data.
Between the lines. Why have things improved so much? Experts point to better battery chemistries, more sophisticated thermal management systems and increasingly precise control software. Viet Nguyen-Tien, a researcher at the London School of Economics specializing in electric vehicles, explains told the WSJ that these advances have allowed modern batteries to last as long as a combustion car engine, even traveling more kilometers.
Additionally, a less obvious reason is that traditional lab tests were much more aggressive than real driving. Simona Onori, researcher at Stanford University, counted to NPR that in everyday use the car constantly accelerates, brakes and recovers energy, a pattern much less demanding on the battery than the extreme charge and discharge cycles that were previously used to simulate its wear. According to Onori, batteries “age very gracefully” when used like this.
On the other hand, Cox Automotive, which manages used car auctions in the United States, has analyzed nearly 80,000 electric cars and found an average battery health of 92%. And among electric vehicles that are more than ten years old, more than 90% continue to circulate with their original battery, according to Recurrent data cited by NPR.
Be careful, not everything is perfect. Batteries do degrade faster in certain circumstances. The fast direct current charging often accelerates wear. And it is that according to the telematics company Geotaba battery usually charged at high power loses autonomy at twice the rate of one charged more gently, although even then it retains about 90% of its capacity after several years. As shared in WSJ, always charging at 100% or leaving the battery at 0% for a long time also accelerates aging, as do extreme temperatures, whether cold or hot.
And now what. It is still early to know how long these batteries will really last in the very long term, because the vast majority of electric vehicles in circulation have not even remotely reached the end of their useful life. Scott Case, CEO of Recurrent, think that people’s confidence in these batteries should be considerably greater than it exists today.
Cover image | Eren Goldman
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