26-02-2025
Researchers discover certain driving behavior could impact the longevity of your car — here's what you need to know
While you would think wear and tear equals a loss, that's surprisingly not always the case with electric vehicles.
An exciting new study from the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center revealed that forms of regular driving can increase the longevity of your EV's battery.
CleanTechnica noted that traditional forms of battery testing have failed to replicate how we use batteries in real life. We don't always use a battery's energy completely before plugging it in.
Simona Onori, the study's senior author and an associate professor of energy science and engineering at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, explained the nuances of the study's battery testing to Stanford Report.
"To our surprise, real driving with frequent acceleration, braking that charges the batteries a bit, stopping to pop into a store, and letting the batteries rest for hours at a time, helps batteries last longer than we had thought based on industry standard lab tests," Onori said.
The U.S. Department of Energy stated that EV batteries have become a lot more reliable over their years of production as well.
According to a recent study, EVs with model years of 2016 onward have a battery failure rate of 0.5% or lower.
If you don't have an EV, getting one can be more cost-effective for you and can benefit the environment.
Using an EV can save you money on fuel costs and maintenance such as oil changes.
When you think about owning an EV, what concerns you most about public charging stations?
Chargers not working
Chargers not being available
Charging being too expensive
Charging taking too long
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
The DOE also stated that all-electric cars emit around 2,700 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, while gasoline-powered cars emit almost 12,600 pounds of CO2 annually.
Of course, switching to a hybrid or plug-in hybrid car can reduce emissions as well. Any step away from using gas is better than nothing.
Discoveries in battery production show that EVs have the potential to save even more money in the long run, and there is hope yet for recycling lithium-ion phone batteries for EVs.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
