Electric cars are growing in popularity but some key concerns remain. In addition to how long it takes to charge and where you can charge, you might wonder about the lifetime of an electric car battery. We’ve all changed the batteries in our TV remotes at some point. Does the same need to happen to an electrc car?
The good news (and shortest answer) is your electric vehicle (EV) battery will not need changing very frequently at all. But in the event you do need to change the battery—say, if it’s faulty, no longer holding charge or you’ve been in an accident—it can be one of the most expensive components of the vehicle.
How much does it cost to change an EV battery?
The cost of an EV battery will depend on whether you repair or replace. According to Bloomberg New Economic Finance (BNEF), the current cost of a battery is around $135 (£118) per kilowatt-hour. Based on that calculation, the Kia EV6’s 77.4kWh battery is an eye-watering $10,449 (£9,136) to replace.
However, the likelihood of you needing to buy a replacement battery is very low, for the reasons detailed below.
What type of batteries are used in electric cars?
Currently, the main battery technology being used in EV batteries is lithium-ion (Li-ion). They have high energy density and can be recharged frequently.
The lithium, depending on the type of battery chemistry favoured by the car maker, can be coupled with a polymer electrolyte, cobalt oxide cathode (positive terminal), a graphite anode (negative terminal) or iron phosphate, manganese oxide or even nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC)…the list goes on.
The point is — before this turns into an unwanted and awful science lesson—scanning that list, you can spot a number of elements present in batteries, no matter the variety, that have to be mined out of the ground.
It is the mining and transportation of these minerals that costs a fair whack and makes the batteries in EVs costly.
Can you repair an EV battery?
The simple answer is, yes. Electric car battery packs are made up of cells, which sit inside modules. Multiple modules make up the pack as a whole.
Although in an ideal world, these cells would all perform identically and degrade simultaneously, that uniformity goes against the nature of chemistry. One module might begin to show signs of faster deterioration.
Battery analytics companies, such as Silver Power Systems, have created state-of-the-art data collection and analysis programmes to understand, in real-time, battery performance and degradation. Manufacturers and fleet managers use these in order to monitor the health of the battery. Using such platforms, battery packs can be optimised and underperforming or damaged cells or modules can be switched out.
How long will electric car batteries last?
While the performance of the battery and its life expectancy are affected by the way an electric car is driven and charged, generally speaking, the battery should be reliable for a fair few years. In fact, in 2019, Nissan reported their electric car batteries would outlast their vehicles twice over.
Electric car battery suppliers such as LG Chem, Panasonic and CATL, put their battery chemistries through millions of lab-based cycles to test for degradation and performance.
The general consensus is that batteries will last 10-20 years, or 500,000 miles. In March 2022, however, highly regarded battery scientist Jeff Dahn and his team of researchers at Dalhousie University concluded that the cells they’ve developed could achieve 4-million miles, a step up from the ‘Million-Mile’ battery the same team documented in 2019.
Future tech aside, manufacturers are so confident that the batteries will not deteriorate rapidly that they’re prepared to offer eight- to 10-year warranties on their batteries in today’s EVs. It is for this reason that you’re not likely to have to fork out £10,000 on a battery replacement. In the unlikely event your car warranty doesn’t cover replacement, your car insurance should.
Will electric vehicles continue to get cheaper?
It’s not all good news though. Over the last decade, the price of EV batteries has fallen from $1.220 (£1,066) per kilowatt-hour to $132 (£87) in 2021. That hasn’t remains the case in 2022.
The prices for raw materials rising dramatically over the last couple of years as demand has outstripped supply. According to Kwasi Ampofo, head of metals and mining at Bloomberg New Economic Finance (BNEF), “Lithium carbonate prices have risen from $5,000 (£4,466) per ton in July 2020 to about $70,000 (£62,527) per ton in July 2022.”
That means battery prices have increased from £87 per kWh in 2021 to £118 per kWh in 2022 (allowing for inflation rate change). As a result of the war in Ukraine and other global economic issues, Bloomberg analysts have warned that higher battery prices could stymie car makers’ efforts to keep new electric car affordable.
Is there enough lithium in the world for electric cars?
While there is probably enough lithium in the world for the foreseeable future of electric vehicles, there are numerous reasons to champion battery recycling programmes and explore alternative battery chemistries that don’t use these raw materials.
Battery recycling advocates, such as Redwood Materials, aim to minimise expensive mining costs and avoid sticking a load of potentially toxic batteries in landfill. Battery recycling requires conformity to stringent regulations, which is why we’re advised to put home batteries in the supermarket buckets.
Once batteries have ended their automotive lives, they can be recycled for other uses. Secondary-life battery applications include home storage, which offers a more stable environment than a car.
The Faraday Institution supports a number of research programmes across the world exploring alternative battery technologies for automotive application. One such initiative is Nexgenna, a sodium-ion research project, led out of St. Andrews University, Scotland. Dr Irvine and his team at Nexgenna posit that sodium is a resource much more globally accessible than lithium. Since their sodium-ion batteries could be produced using existing battery production facilities, they offer a compelling case for looking at alternatives to lithium.
