Electric car battery basics

The average battery warranty offered by electric vehicle manufacturers is around 8 years or 100,000 miles. So, it’s unlikely you’ll need the battery changed unless your car takes a knock in an accident – in which case your insurer should cover the cost.

Just like an engine, an electric vehicle battery benefits from a little TLC. Regular servicing by a qualified engineer should let you stay on top of battery health – while a few simple tricks can help you get the most out of it.

There are three dos and don’ts that’ll help to keep your battery healthy for longer:

1. Don’t use rapid chargers too often. They’re handy if you need to get back on the road fast but can reduce the life of some batteries if you use them all the time.
2. Avoid unnecessary braking, acceleration, and regularly check tyre pressure to help extend the life and range of your battery. A lot of driving on the motorway at higher speeds could impact your battery over time.
3. Keep the battery charged at between 20 and 80%. Although this doesn’t apply to every manufacturer, so make sure you read your car’s manual to find out about your particular model.

A gentle thwack and couple of turns won’t stop your car’s battery from flatlining. It’s unlikely, but if you need to replace an electric vehicle battery, and it’s out of warranty, it could be expensive. 

With most batteries guaranteed for 8-10 years, and most of us owning our cars for an average of 9 years ^{Footnote [1]}, you might end up replacing the car before the battery. 

Once your battery has finally done all the uni visits, morning commutes, and muddy dog walks it can handle, it’ll be ready to enter the lithium-ion afterlife.

But, of course, having a battery is only half the job to getting you on the open road, you also need to know how to keep your electric car charged up. Don’t let looking for a charging point put you off looking at an EV; they’re already more common than you think. 

And if you’ve already got your eye on an electric car, find out how much it’ll cost you to insure with a quick quote.