The perception with EVs rightly or wrongly is limited battery life, you don't want to be the one with no chair when the music stops
If I'm spending my money I want to know the battery isn't going to need replacing in my ownership , fine when they're 3 years old but 10 years old , millions of petrol cars on the road are 10+ years old and still useable to drive to Scotland in a day for £5000 or less, would I spend my money on a 14 plate EV with no guarantee on the battery , unlikely
That's the bridge they need to cross, public confidence in battery life if they're going to be around for as long as petrol cars.
I get it, there is in essence a change in the economics of cars, where before we would pay over time for things like engine oil, air filters and spark plugs, to a single outlay for a battery. Which could end up on a new owners plate without the benefit of the previous savings. Batteries, like engines, don’t usually fail catastrophically, they degrade over time, so when buying a used EV it should be possible to identify a failing battery, like looking for smoke from the exhaust, and either factor in repairs or walk away. A 10 year old Nissan Leaf might have a range of 50 miles (it was less than 100 when new). As they seem to still have a value, that must be ok for some people, who don’t need to drive long distances. My mum would never need more than that for example.
It is possible, and will become more widespread, to repair batteries, which are made up of multiple small cells. Only one or two of which will fail. The manufacturers will quote a new battery if they aren’t paying for it, but there are already outfits which will refurb them.
Like a lot of things, changes take a while to balance out, but in the end it will. One thing is for sure, it wasn’t perfect from the outset, but then neither was the petrol car. But after a century, the ICE has peaked, a glorious, soul stirring, melodious peak (most Renaults excluded). EVs are already better for the planet (if that’s your bag) and have benefits in use for mundane transport, and will only get more so.
