How long does an electric car battery last?

To find out, VICKY PARROTT has the battery of a 176,000-mile, ex-Uber Tesla Model 3 independently tested. So how much life is really left in it, how long can you expect the ‘average’ EV battery to last and what happens to it when it can no longer power the car? Some of the answers may surprise you

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Electric cars have been in mainstream production for 14 years now, yet the question of how long batteries really last is still a sticking point for many consumers. That's understandable, given there remains some uncertainty about it. Yet ironically one of the reasons for this uncertainty is that the batteries which powered the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe and BMW i3 in those early years of EV production are still, well, powering Nissan Leafs, Renault Zoes and BMW i3s...

If you ask a manufacturer how long the battery will last in a new electric car, they will point to the eight-year/100,000-mile warranty that just about every maker offers (there or thereabouts) - and seldom venture any further estimate.

It’s also common knowledge that batteries are ferociously expensive to replace. All of which means it’s perfectly understandable why battery longevity remains a concern.

So we found ourselves a high-mileage EV and took it for an independent test. The electric car in question is a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD, which has been well cared for but has nonetheless had a relentless existence as an Uber taxi and has covered 176,000 miles. Our independent tester is EV Experts in Hampshire – a used EV specialist that offers battery tests on all the vehicles it sells.

We dropped in with our very slightly cigarettey Tesla taxi and took advantage of their Moba battery-testing software and the staff who do these tests every day to find out how much battery life remained.