There are about 36.16 million passenger cars on our roads, of which about 1.3 million are electric.
The latter are increasing but nothing like as fast as the government wants. Hence the recent announcement of subsidies (for some).
Common reasons for delaying going electric are cost (EVs – electric vehicles – cost more to make and insure than their combustion equivalents), an inadequate charging infrastructure, time taken to recharge, rapid depreciation and the high cost of replacing batteries.
AI reckons these average £7,235.07. Most manufacturers guarantee new ones for 100,000 miles or eight years, but the average car on UK roads is nine and a half years old, and half are over ten.
However, if battery replacement is your main anxiety, a recent survey of battery life conducted by Autocar offers significant reassurance. Autocar acquired a 2021 176,000-mile Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD and took it to used-EV specialists EV Experts in Hampshire for testing.
A hard-used former Uber taxi, it had been well cared-for but 45 per cent of its charging cycles were on rapid chargers, known to hasten battery degradation. Despite this, its 75kWh battery still retained 90 per cent of its battery life. Testers were also able to confirm that it was still capable of its original 249-mile combined real-world range.
Given that mainstream production EVs have been on our roads for about 14 years, this means that some of those early high-mileage, now-cheap Nissan Leafs and Renault Zoes, still running on their original batteries, remain a practical proposition for local journeys.
Mileage is apparently less a factor in degradation than age – so we needn’t avoid high-milers. Nor should age worry us too much: modern batteries lose about 1.8 per cent of capacity a year, and earlier ones about 2.3 per cent; though both degrade more rapidly below 70 per cent.
Despite the Tesla example, if a car has been subjected to only AC charging rather than DC rapid-charging, its battery is likely to last longer. A recent academic study, based on MOT data, suggested that the average lifespan of an EV is 18½ years and 124,000 miles, slightly exceeding the 17 years and 123,000 miles for combustion vehicles.
These beguiling figures are subject to revision over time, of course, especially the longevity ones. I’m the opposite of a statistician, but given the overwhelmingly greater number of combustion vehicles compared with EVs and the fact that the number of EVs on our roads 18 years ago must have been tiny, it’s possible they’re not comparing like with like. So a teaspoon of salt might be advisable.
Autocar’s research into battery life is nonetheless reassuring. Unless you’re buying new, it looks as if the best- value EVs would be late-ish high-milers.
A glance at motors.co.uk, the dealers’ website, yielded a standard 2019 Tesla 3 with 89,000 miles and battery range of 254 miles for £12,950. Alternatively, for £50 more, there’s a 2024 Leaf with only 10,000 miles and 168-mile battery range. But check insurance costs: those Teslas are groups 48 or 50 (the highest there is), the Leafs around 21-24.
It’s not enough to tempt me – yet. A recent 426-mile tour in our 15-year-old diesel Volvo – with no charging points at either of the hotels or the friend’s house where we stayed – was completed on less than one tank with no range anxiety. And it took just five minutes to refill when we got home.
For local journeys, a nice new EV would do nicely – but it would take many thousands of miles for the additional environmental costs of building and running it to come down to those incurred by chugging on with the old oil-burner.
