The used electric car timebomb

Money Mail can today reveal a timebomb looming in the second-hand market for electric vehicles (EVs).

Our investigation found that many EVs could become almost impossible to resell because of their limited battery life.

Experts said that the average EV battery guarantee lasts just eight years. After this time, the battery may lose power more quickly and so reduce mileage between charges.

Many EVs will lose up to 12 per cent of their charge capacity by six years. Some may lose even more.

Yet the cost of replacing an EV battery is astonishingly high, our research found.

A five-year-old Renault Zoe costs GBP9,100 but a new battery will set you back GBP24,124

In some cases, the cost of a replacement battery is as much as GBP40,000.

For certain EVs, the cost of replacing the battery could be ten times the value of the vehicle itself on the second-hand market.

That means used EVs have a limited lifespan — which makes them a bigger and bigger risk as the years go by.

Research into EV batteries is yet to be conclusive and the second-hand EV market is new, given the first popular EVs were rolled off the production line in 2009.

Last night, one motoring expert said customers should be wary of buying a used electric car beyond its warranty (typically eight years), as after that timespan there is no easy way of measuring how much the battery will degrade before it needs replacing.

This may mean you end up needing to pay for an expensive new battery.

Motor expert Shahzad Sheikh, who runs the YouTube channel Brown Car Guy, said: ‘With a decaying battery, the range will be poor and you may find it becomes increasingly hard to resell the vehicle after eight years.

Buyers will know that they’ll only get a small amount of life out of the car so will pay only a small sum, if anything at all.’

This problem is exacerbated by the fact all new cars coming onto the market by 2035 will be electric and motorists will have to get used to paying around GBP10,000 more than it’s petrol equivalent, for a vehicle which is not built to last as long.

Take a new petrol-driven Renault Clio — it costs around GBP20,000, while its all-electric opposite, the Renault Zoe, costs closer to GBP30,000.

While you can drive a traditional petrol or diesel car for around 200,000 miles over 14 years before the engine needs fixing or replacing, by comparison a new EV is typically guaranteed under a warranty for 100,000 miles over eight years.

Should your petrol engine need replacing you can expect to pay around GBP5,000, but replace the battery on your EV outside warranty and you’re looking at an eye-watering GBP13,000 to GBP40,000, depending on the make of your car, if you fit a manufacturer’s new unit.

And there are external factors at play with battery degradation — including use of fast chargers and even a colder climate.

The high cost of EV batteries is a result of it being difficult to mine metals such as nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese that are used in the lithium-ion batteries.

They are also in demand for the production of other electronics, including mobile phones and laptops.

In the most extreme cases, such as with a 12-year-old Nissan Leaf that cost GBP2,000 to buy, you can pay as much as GBP24,000 for a brand-new replacement 24kWh battery.

However, most owners would upgrade to a newer 40kWh Nissan battery costing GBP12,780 before garage installation fees of around GBP2,000. This later battery has a bigger capacity but can still be fitted into older models.

T hese high costs to maintain an electric car do not bode well for a fledgling second-hand market believes Shahzad Sheikh, who points out: ‘Early adopters have already bought electric cars while the next wave of buyers are looking for value for money — and struggling to find it.

‘The second-hand market might seem a natural place to look for an EV but unfortunately it is fraught with danger as the batteries are worth more than the car. If the battery stops working, the vehicle becomes almost worthless.’

Vehicle trading website AA Cars agrees and says that nearly half of all potential second-hand EV buyers are put off because of concerns about battery life.

To replace the battery on your EV outside warranty will cost between GBP13,000 to GBP40,000 depending on the make of your car if you fit a manufacturer’s new unit

Rightly so, according to the RAC.

It cites the Nissan Leaf as one of the most popular second-hand EVs which by the time it reaches eight years old may have lost 20 per cent of the range it had when new.

This is due to the battery losing its efficiency, so achieves a distance of 99 miles between charges rather than the theoretical 124 miles.

This may be fine for local trips but impractical for long motorway journeys. The RAC adds that motorists might expect the battery to lose perhaps 2 per cent of its power each year to such degradation.

While motorists may try to save time using a service station fast-charger, these generate more heat which accelerates a chemical reaction inside the lithium-ion battery that can lead to a loss in the capacity it can hold over time.

To prolong the life of the battery it may be better to charge your car on a slower mains-connected home charger.

Weather also plays a part in how long your battery will last and EV batteries operate best at a temperature between 25-45 degrees Celsius.

If you live in a place with freezing winter temperatures, then this will slow the chemical reactions in EV batteries, which can also reduce the charge held over time — and therefore lower a car’s overall range.

To prolong the life of the battery it may be better to charge your car on a slower mains-connected home charger

So you are better off charging your EV car inside a garage rather than outside during the cold winter months.

Tom Barnard, of EV experts Electrifying.com, advises motorists to buy a second-hand car with a battery still under warranty. This typically covers the first eight years of motoring or 100,000 miles — whichever comes first.

He says: ‘If you purchase an EV older than eight years with more miles on the clock then you are taking a gamble on the battery holding out.

You cannot just look at the mileage clock as with a traditional car.

‘There is a wide combination of other variables to consider with an electric car battery.

‘Battery degradation might also become a more important consideration in the future — as we try to be more sustainable — and perhaps be included in an MOT.

So, our advice for those who might be nervous about battery life is to buy a car that is still covered by warranty.’

Concerns about battery cost are not helped by a lack of transparency within the industry — with prices of a new battery not advertised.

Money Mail requested prices directly from Nissan and no definitive answer was given. Purchasing a battery for your second-hand electric vehicle is not an isolated cost either.

You must also consider the labour cost of replacing it, says David Smith, a director at car dealer and garage Cleevely Electric Vehicles, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

‘As a general rule-of-thumb you might budget GBP2,000 for a specialist to do the task. Batteries are typically placed flat along the length and breadth of the car just above the floor plate and usually not too difficult to get at.

‘But it is a specialist job, and you also need a full understanding of the wiring and may have to reset the computer on the vehicle to accept a replaced battery.

Some firms, such as Tesla, will only allow their own dealerships to do the job.’

And what of the fate of an old EV battery that can no longer be used in a car?

They typically fetch GBP1,500 and can be used for holding energy storage for solar panels, but many fear they will end up in landfill.

Now a host of new start-ups are racing against the clock to find a way to recycle car batteries past their prime including JB Straubel, former chief Technical Officer of Tesla, who has launched Redwood Materials.

Mr Barnard says: ‘The old batteries have an intrinsic worth because of the valuable metals inside them — and even if they are no longer practical for storing electricity they have a scrap value.

‘It is still a relatively new market and we can expect it to grow more as we move towards a more renewable future.’