New research from Geotab, a global leader in connected transportation solutions, has found that modern EV batteries degrade at only 1.8% per year. This means that the vast majority of batteries will remain viable for 20 years or more, outlasting the usable life of the vehicles they're powering.
Geotab analysed the battery health of around 5000 EVs, discovering that average battery health has improved by 22% over the past five years (1.8% degradation in 2024, versus 2.3% in 2019).
The findings bust one of the long-held myths around electric vehicles – that batteries are less reliable than their ICE counterparts. In fact, the best-performing EV models on sale today have battery degradation rates of just 1.0% annually; and this number is likely to reduce as battery technology improves.
Interestingly, high-use batteries did not show increased degradation rates, suggesting that EVs offer better value the more they are driven.
Telematics data insights, which can be found in Geotab’s EV Battery Health report, allow fleets to know the real battery capacity of their EVs and understand the rate of degradation, helping them achieve optimal value throughout their EV's life-cycle.