Why your EV battery will outlast your phone's — and by how much

Battery longevity is a common worry because phone batteries often wear out after a few years. Replacing an iPhone battery can feel expensive, and swapping an EV pack is far costlier: the battery itself can run $5,000 to $25,000, with labor adding $1,000 to $3,000.

A UK firm that specializes in EV battery diagnostics, Generational, examined 8,000 cars and vans from 36 makes, ranging from new to 12 years old and with mileages up to more than 160,000. The study found average battery health was a strong 95.15%. EV batteries are typically considered unfit for use below 70% health — a lower bar than the roughly 80% threshold for consumer electronics — and median capacity for vehicles aged eight to nine years remained above 85%.

Mileage was an even poorer predictor of wear: vehicles with more than 100,000 miles routinely showed 88–95% battery health, and the common eight-year/100,000-mile warranty looks generous by these measures. Construction and chemistry explain much of the difference.

United Kingdom

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