√How long do hybrid and electric-car batteries last?

With record sales of hybrid and electric cars, a new market is emerging in battery replacement and recycling schemes. Here’s everything you need to know if you are looking to buy a hybrid or electric car.

While the growth of electric and hybrid car sales is exciting for the automotive industry, for many consumers it brings a great amount of uncertainty.

Particularly in the case of electric cars, where few models have been on the market long enough for us to accrue solid data on how they age over time – especially in regards to their battery capacity and range.

While the batteries in most electrified cars have longer warranties than the rest of the vehicle, it’s generally accepted they will lose their capacity and, thus, some of their range after prolonged use.

Generally, faults with electric vehicle batteries tend to appear once the battery loses between 20 and 30 per cent of its capacity – often as a result of a small number of individual battery modules bringing down its overall capacity.

“The key consideration is an electric vehicle [EV] battery, like every battery, starts to deteriorate the second it’s built – they lose life over time. How quickly that happens is highly dependent on how the car is driven, charged and looked after,” Ben Warren, Nissan’s National Manager for Electrification and Mobility, told Drive.

For consumers who’ve traditionally purchased cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE), the idea that your electric car’s battery could be cactus only a few years into ownership could serve as something of a deterrent.

After all, imagine how you’d feel if you purchased a car and the fuel tank started to shrink over time? Not exactly ideal.

However, rest assured this scenario is likely to arise well into your ownership experience and, if and when it does, you have plenty of options available to you.

Here’s what you need to know.

How long do hybrid and electric-car batteries last?

The life cycle of a hybrid or electric-car battery can vary greatly based on individual use and charging habits.

As a general rule, the average manufacturer’s battery warranty term of eight years can be used as a rough guideline.

“In terms of how long [an electric car battery] will last for, our expectation is that it should well exceed the eight years,” Mr Warren told Drive of the Nissan Leaf, which launched its first-generation model in Australia a decade ago.

“Ultimately, it’s about how long will it cater to your driving requirements. Someone who doesn’t do much driving won’t ever have to replace the battery, but others who do high mileage may find that they need replacing [after eight years].”

Anecdotally, Mr Warren said of the first-generation Nissan Leaf models on Australian roads, “The overwhelming majority are still running around on their original batteries”.

However, according to Dick Leow, the General Manager of Infinitev – a Melbourne-based firm that specialises in refurbishing electric and hybrid batteries – capacity loss can occur even earlier than the eight-year mark.

“We know most manufacturers have six, to eight, to 10-year warranties [for hybrid and electric-car batteries], but from a lot of enquiries we’re getting, [these batteries] are starting to fail around the six-year mark,” Mr Leow told Drive.

“It really depends on how the vehicle is driven. During the Covid period, for example, we had a lot of batteries failing within the first four years because we had vehicles idle, which can lead to a higher failure rate.”

Additionally, Mr Leow said the batteries used in fully electric cars were more likely to fault than the ones used in hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“The traction battery from a hybrid vehicle is not as critical because they use the internal combustion engine as well, but from the pure EVs, a lot of them can fail when [left idle],” Mr Leow explained.

Above: Dickson Leow (left) is the General Manager of Infinitev, a Melbourne-based company taking faulty electric and hybrid car batteries and refurbishing them, or repurposing them as energy storage systems

How can I tell if my electric or hybrid battery is losing capacity?

A sure sign that your plug-in hybrid or electric-car battery is starting to lose its capacity is if you find yourself charging it more often than usual.

“You might find you’re charging the vehicle more frequently or, from a full-hybrid vehicle perspective, your fuel efficiency might be dropping,” Mr Leow explained.

Some electric cars, like the Nissan Leaf, even offer an in-built measure of battery health for better consumer transparency.

“The Leaf has a state of health meter, which has 12 bars, and the state of health warranty says if it drops below nine bars within that eight-year warranty period we fix it or replace it, free of charge,” Mr Warren explained.

Unfortunately, for many other electric and hybrid vehicles, it’s hard for the consumer to identify a capacity issue themselves.

If you’re suspicious your battery capacity might be declining, you’ll need to tap a professional to run a diagnostic check.

To do this, you can either take it back to the dealership, or to a third-party provider or workshop, who can run the check and advise the best course of action.

We approached Toyota – the industry leader in hybrid sales – for information on what happens if one of its vehicles’ hybrid batteries needs to be replaced and a spokesperson explained the following:

“That is normally determined at the time of service when a technician conducts the hybrid health inspection with specialist equipment that our service centres have. A hybrid health inspection includes testing of the traction battery, traction battery cooling fan, auxiliary battery voltage and inverter cooling pump operation,” the spokesperson explained.

“Toyota has its own battery recycling and repair initiative which it uses to replace batteries and recycle them in an environmentally conscious and responsible manner. In excess of 98 per cent of the battery materials are diverted from landfill, and all toxic elements are removed. This program also includes the incentive of a cash rebate when you return, or a discount when you return and replace a hybrid HV battery.”

How much does it cost to replace an electric or hybrid-car battery?

If you’re within your battery warranty period and the capacity drops below the stipulated percentage, or the battery faults, most manufacturers will fix or repair it free of charge.

Hybrid-car batteries tend to be more affordable to replace than full-electric batteries, which are larger.

In the case of the Toyota Camry Hybrid, Toyota quotes a replacement price of $3027, excluding GST but including labour.

For pure-electric cars outside of the warranty period, we found it more challenging to get a concrete answer from car brands as to the cost, with many explaining that they’re yet to encounter the issue given their electric models are so new to the market.

In the case of the first-generation Nissan Leaf, Mr Warren said consumers needing a replacement outside of their warranty period could access Nissan’s subsidised replacement program, which provides a full-capacity replacement for roughly $10,000 plus labour.

“What I’d say [to a current-generation Leaf buyer] is that for the first eight years, it’s our problem and there’s zero cost to you and, after that, I couldn’t accurately tell you what the price will be,” Mr Warren said.

Similarly, when we asked Mercedes-Benz for rough pricing on replacing an electric-car battery, a spokesperson said giving general information was difficult because the cost can vary so much – particularly with current warranty periods extending well into the 2030s.

“The cost depends on the type of battery and the vehicle model at the time a replacement battery is required outside of warranty,” the spokesperson said.

The flipside is that, while not guaranteed, it’s possible that in eight years, the cost of a new battery will be cheaper than it is now.

How much does it cost to have my battery repaired?

Some car brands have the ability to assess batteries that have lost capacity or undergone damage and simply repair the faulty modules, rather than replacing the battery in its entirety.

Polestar, for example, guarantees a minimum battery capacity retention of 70 per cent over the course of its eight-year, 160,000km battery warranty.

If your capacity dips below this figure during the warranty term, Polestar will repair the battery free of charge.

Rather than swapping the entire battery out for a new one, Polestar will identify which battery cells are faulty and replace them.

This is not only more cost-effective, but it also ensures the brand maintains its sustainability focus by repurposing the used battery cells in the consumer electronics market.

Infinitev, meanwhile, offers a battery swap program for hybrid vehicles (with plans to expand this to electric vehicles in the near future) that can reduce the cost of a new battery by around $500 by using a similar approach to Polestar.

“If you’re the owner of a hybrid Toyota Prius, going to the manufacturer for a new battery could cost $3000, but with us it will be $2500,” Mr Leow said.

The company sources used hybrid batteries directly from consumers, wrecking yards, manufacturers and workshops, and then runs diagnostic checks to assess whether any of the modules are still viable.

Infinitev will salvage these viable modules and then replace the failed modules to create a functional, remanufactured battery out of recycled parts – which typically gets the battery back to around 80 per cent capacity.

These remanufactured hybrid batteries come with an additional three-year/40,000km warranty from Infinitev.

How long is the average electric or hybrid-car battery warranty?

Generally speaking, the industry standard for an electric-car battery warranty is eight years or 160,000km, whichever comes first.

Most manufacturers will also stipulate the minimum amount of capacity your battery should retain within that warranty period, which tends to be 70 per cent.

For example, Mercedes-Benz issues a battery certificate for the high-voltage batteries used in its all-electric cars that covers the battery for 10 years or up to 250,000km, and guarantees a remaining capacity of 70 per cent or more over that period.

That means if your car’s battery capacity seems to be dwindling and diagnostic checks reveal its capacity has dipped below 70 per cent, you can have that battery replaced under warranty.

Tesla offers a similar guarantee, with eight years of coverage across all of its models and between 160,000km and 240,000km of coverage depending on the model, with a minimum of 70 per cent battery capacity.

A similar warranty period typically also applies to the batteries used in plug-in hybrid cars.

For example, both Mitsubishi, Volvo and MG offer eight-year, 160,000km warranties for the batteries in their plug-in hybrid models.

Meanwhile, Toyota and Lexus offer a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty for the batteries in their full-hybrid vehicles, but this can be extended up to 10 years if owners maintain their car in accordance with the prescribed servicing intervals (subject to an annual hybrid health check).

How can I extend the life of my hybrid or electric-car battery?

Some electric and hybrid carmakers will actually stipulate the maximum point to which you should charge your car’s battery in order to prolong battery life.

For example, the Polestar 2’s charging screen has a note to owners that recommends charging to only 90 per cent to preserve battery life.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz recommends that customers charge their electric car’s battery using a public DC charging station or one of Mercedes-Benz’s $1800 wallboxes “due to the improved charging performance and better charging efficiency offered”.

Refer to your car’s manual for specific recommendations on prolonging battery life.

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