Compared to petrol and diesel vehicles, electric cars only cause around half the operating costs. In the current energy crisis, this advantage is even increasing. But as with combustion engines, many drivers no longer have enough budget for a new car. Used electric vehicles that combine low operating costs and affordable purchase prices are becoming all the more popular. But what risk do you take with a used battery-powered mobile, where the manufacturer’s warranty on the battery usually ends after eight years?

Electric cars: Batteries last a long, critical limit of 90,000 kilometers

The Carly company has been around for many years specializes in data analysis in the automotive sector and builds devices for reading control devices, has published a comprehensive analysis on the topic together with TÜV Nord. This is about the “State of Health” (SoH). For traction batteries in electric cars, it describes the “state of health” of the battery, which consists of many individual cells. From an SoH of at least 90 percent, the condition is still considered good by experts. For an electric car with a range of 500 kilometers, for example, 90 SoH means that the everyday range is still around 450 kilometers.

The analysis is based on measurements in 50,000 vehicles and leads to the following results:

• Newer models have better overall battery performance than older vehicles. “Across all brands, the median of all SoH data collected is 96 points. Only 9.9 percent of vehicles have an SoH value of less than 85 points,” according to the study.
• From 90,000 kilometers onwards, the capacity goes downhill. “From around 90,000 kilometers onwards, the decline is on average around 2.3 points per 10,000 kilometers. This development is particularly evident in newer vehicles, which form the majority of the data basis. At the same time, it can be seen that the annual mileage is at a similar level across the brands considered. This means that the mileage in a comparison between the brands has no significant influence on the results,” the analysis by Carly and TÜV Nord continues.
• There are significant differences between the individual e-car manufacturers. “Brands such as Hyundai, Kia or Mercedes-Benz already achieve values ​​in the range of around 90 to over 95 points for older vehicles and almost consistently increase to up to 100 points for newer models. In contrast, manufacturers such as VW, Renault or Citroën sometimes start significantly lower for older models, for example in the range of 70 to 80 points,” is the result.

What car buyers can do

On the one hand, the analysis dispels the prejudice that electric car batteries “give up the ghost” after just a few years. On the other hand, there is a difference in quality between individual brands and the battery cells they use. And: Old electric vehicles with high mileages tend to lose battery power.

Since there are no longer any guarantees and replacing a battery almost always represents a total economic loss, buying a used electric vehicle remains a risk. “Our data shows that batteries are more robust than often assumed, but at the same time they clearly age as mileage increases,” said Avid Avini, CEO of Carly.

Anyone who buys a used electric vehicle should definitely request a battery certificate, which can be ordered from TÜV or Dekra and shows the current SoH. Then you have no guarantee that there won’t be a battery defect in the future; But you don’t have such guarantees with an older gasoline or diesel engine.