An interesting study showcases how the EV battery failure rates have declined from 2011 to 2023.
The health startup Recurrent published a study which encompasses the failure rate of modern EV batteries. This study was titled New Study: How Long Do Electric Car Batteries Last? The findings of this study were documented in a report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office. This survey took data from around 15,000 rechargeable vehicles between 2011 and 2023. The outcome was quite surprising.
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Failure Rate of Modern EV Batteries
Now, we all know that the number of plug-in electric cars (PHEVs and BEVs) was little in the initial five years (2011 – 2015) and the battery technology was still taking shape. While there is still a long way to go, we are at a lot better and technologically advanced stage today, in comparison. Hence, the EV battery failure rate was a whopping 7.5% in 2011 and 1.6% in 2015. These stats don’t include the recalls.
Things changed for the better post-2016. Advanced technologies like active liquid battery cooling, more sophisticated thermal management systems and new battery chemistries have emerged. That becomes visible from the battery failure rate in 2016, which was just 0.3%. Furthermore, this number went even lower to 0.1% in 2017. Hence, one could think of the time post-2016 as the second life for EV battery technology.
The stats have danced around 0.1% to 0.5% from 2016 to 2023. This translates to – 1 in every 1,000 EV batteries could encounter failure. That is quite a healthy rate. However, it must be pondered whether the EV industry becomes successful in bringing this down even more by 2030 with the intense R&D work going on in battery tech and EV battery cell chemistry.
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Learn Electric Cars Says
As the sales of electric cars rise exponentially across the globe, issues pertaining to EV battery failure become more prominent. In general, the EV batteries are considered safe. Sure, there have been a few fire cases in EV batteries. But the safety, maintenance costs and environmental factors are largely in favour of EVs. We must also mention that data will become more readily available as the existing EVs age and electric cars become mainstream in the next few years.