How EV Makers Could Easily Silence Critics' Battery Concerns

There remain many reasons why electric vehicles scare some buyers. By contrast, many aspects of owning a battery-electric vehicle seem like no big deal to those who are dead set against using liquid fuels in automobiles. For these motivated buyers, the following are not real concerns:
-Difficulty finding convenient charging on road trips
-Difficulty charging if one does not have a home charger
-Dramatically reduced highway range in winter
-Cold-weather increases in charging time
-Battery life and replacement costs
-Tire maintenance costs
-Lack of a spare tire
-Resale value and value retention of an EV

The above are all concerns for many (not all) shoppers who may be considering an EV. If you feel our list is unfair, let’s take a simple example. Ask yourself, "Is difficulty charging during road trips really a concern?” Now, those who own EVs may point to the deluge of articles saying, “We took our EV on a road trip, and it went just fine.” However, turn the situation around and ask yourself, “If EV road trips are no big deal, why are so many articles about EV road trips?” The truth is, that the topic is still being fleshed out, and many EV owners know this. That’s why they create these endless EV roadtrip articles. Notice we did not take a stand on the topic. We simply point out that it is a topic. 

The “EV Battery Replacement Costs Will Be Daunting” Concern
One concern that many eligible buyers had early on was that the EV battery would die at some point out of warranty, and the replacement cost would mean the choice between a huge five-figure bill (like $10K or more) or scrapping a car that would otherwise still have significant equity remaining. 

Over the past decade, your author has been telling folks that this concern is unfounded and that every EV has a battery designed to last the life of the car. However, I’m not so sure anymore. The following automakers have all had either defects they resolved independently, extended warranty programs to handle possible defects, or NHTSA-mandated battery-related failure recalls:
Tesla
General Motors (Chevy Bolt and EUV)
General Motors (GMC Hummer, and Cadillac Lyric) 
Ford (Mustang Mach-E)
Ford (F-150 Lighting)
Hyundai / Kia
VW
Nissan

As you can see, pretty much every brand that has made a battery-electric vehicle has had an issue with the battery significant enough in nature to warrant a recall action, work stoppage, "park outside mandate," or similar. Some were huge costly recalls affecting entire fleets, others small annoyances affecting few overall vehicles. Some were related to (scary) fires, others to hard-to-access EV battery connectors, and others still were related to software. The EV battery-related problems were all over the map. Given that so many problems have occurred that resulted in formal action, it is very difficult to say with a straight face that EV batteries won’t ever fail after the warranty period is up. 

The Simple Solution To EV Battery Concerns
The simple solution to eliminate this cause of fear, uncertainty, and doubt is to cover the battery under warranty for the reasonable life of the vehicle. Walk the walk, in other words. Some EV makers already offer very long EV battery warranties. If the vehicle’s reasonable lifespan is, say 200,000 miles, include a battery warranty for first and subsequent owners that spans that duration. Problem solved. 

Here’s another idea. It seems reasonable to say that battery failures before 200,000 miles may sometimes occur but will be relatively rare. Why not offer buyers a factory-direct battery extended warranty that has a very low cost? Perhaps $500. This warranty could cover the period from the existing long warranty, say 100,000 miles, to a reasonable period near the vehicle’s end of value or end of life, say 200,000 miles. The manufacturer can pocket that money and use it to pay for the rare battery replacements with a smile. 

Why Not Just Buy an Extended Warranty?
Now, you may be saying this is a silly topic. One can simply purchase an extended warranty! The truth is that many third-party extended warranty companies exclude electric vehicles outright, or they exclude hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and EV components of BEVs. I know this because I spent a year researching these companies at Car Talk. Another reason extended warranties do not solve the problem is cost. Many Mfg.-sponsored extended warranties cost many thousands of dollars. 

Summary - We Can Solve This EV Buyer Concern Easily

There is room to improve the battery-electric vehicle and the BEV ownership experience. As a society, we already subsidize the BEV purchase. We use tax dollars and fines to naughty companies like VW to create EV infrastructure, and our tax dollars flowed freely to auto dealers during COVID in the form of forgiven “loans.” Nobody in America’s policy-creation realm is afraid to throw money at EVs. Perhaps in a future EV subsidy bill, the EV battery would be required to be warranted for the reasonable life of the vehicle? If so, it would immediately end a long-running debate that is a sticking point for many shoppers. EV makers could do this today of their own volition if they wish. It does not have to be in the form of mandates. If the plan in America is to switch to EVs en masse, changes will be required. This one is simple. After all, EV batteries "almost never fail during the vehicle’s lifetime," right?

Top of page image by John Goreham. Re-use with permission only. 

John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter, and connect with him at Linkedin.