My 2017 Kia Soul EV still has over 90% of its battery life. So no, it did not suddenly die or lose so much capacity as to be inoperable after 5 years of life as some were predicting 8 years ago. However my spouse's 2017 ICE vehicle is in need of at least $3000 of maintenance every year for the last 3 (since no longer under warranty) just to keep it reliably running which is already over 1/2 the cost of replacing the EV battery. If the lifetime maintenance of their vehicle and mine were compared, I could probably replace my battery in a couple years and not be any more expensive and still have saved 80% in fuel costs for the prior decade on top of that. I'm glad I took the risk to buy it and the technology has just been getting better.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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They haven't controlled that data for shit. Of course 10-15 year old cars have had more battery replacements than 0-3 year old cars.
I agree that they're better now, but you could build the same chart with tires.
Seriously this shit read like it was written by a Tesla
So not saying this is what the data is saying, but the article is worded in a way that this thought could be true:
What if the reason people aren't replacing the batteries in their cars because they're just selling/trading in their cars? The article doesn't directly say that the first gen cars' batteries are still usable (let's say 80% of "new" capacity), it just says people aren't getting them replaced, which isn't necessarily the same thing.
Does anyone else know any more about this? Its my understanding that an electric car's battery is expected to hit that 80% of new capacity somewhere around the 5 year mark (and as someone who rarely owns a vehicle less than 10 years, that's been a personal barrier to me jumping to EV)
Anecdotal, but my 2019 Tesla model 3 is at 86% of the original rated range. At max charge it shows 332 km, and it was rated for 390 or so when I bought it. The battery has another 2 years of warranty, but that only kicks in if it drops to 70%, which I don't think will happen.
As for buying used, as long as you avoid Nissan Leaf, I don't think there would be a huge issue with any other model. I wish this article had broken down the models that needed battery replacements rather than just by year, because I suspect the issues are going to be concentrated in a few specific makes or models.
There are EVs that are 10+ years old already. Most of them Tesla. But you can take a look at that, and hopefully it'll help you figure out whether the degradation is acceptable to you. As a quick rule of thumb, I think 80% after 5 years is pretty normal, but the degradation also slows down over time.
Why avoid Nissan leaf?
It doesn't have a battery cooling system, so the batteries degrade quickly and significantly.
Newer models are slightly better, but not as good as pretty much every other option.
Your swasticar’s resale value is not primarily affected by the battery status.
They said it's a 2019. It was purchased when Musk was a derpy absentee CEO, not an architect of the current fascist state. I don't know if it's fair to call it a swasticar; more like an unfortunate victim of a pretty bad political crash.
We looked into a replacement for our 2014 Volt (maybe worth $3500). Not even possible to get and price was nuts (1 year back order and $16K). The only reasonable option was a 3rd party replacement which seem to be in the $3K-$6K range. Turned out we did not need it thankfully, it was some other problem. We expect to need a replacement at some point as we will run the car to at least 15 years.
Same. Would want to see how the resale values go after 5-7 years. Some models, e.g. the BMW ix have known issues and drop by half even for 3 year old models, at least in my market. I'll keep by banger for now.
That’s not true at all. BMW batteries have an 8 year warranty. And we (I am a BMW dealer tech) have never had to replace one due to ageing. People are fearing something that doesn’t happen. Which is excellent for those of us that actually know, cheap used cars.
I'm in the tropics, if that makes any difference. These are not grey imports - they're dealership cars. Reports of pickup apparently dropping after the first 3 years etc. I'm not an owner, just know a couple.