So it won't last with the full capacity, but after about 10 to 12 years, the average lifespan of a car, the batteries will still have about 70% capacity left. The batteries themselves are currently estimated to have a 15 to 20 lifespan, hence them "outlasting" the car. In fact, a major recycling path for these batteries once the car is retired is to be used in large scale power storage systems! Or the batteries can be recycled of their lithium and become new batteries.
TheBarMic t1_j23uws4 wrote
Reply to comment by oscarcp in ELI5 why do electric vehicles have one big battery that's hard to replace once it's expired, rather than lots of smaller ones that could be swapped out based on need (to trade off range/power/weight)? by ginonofalg
So it won't last with the full capacity, but after about 10 to 12 years, the average lifespan of a car, the batteries will still have about 70% capacity left. The batteries themselves are currently estimated to have a 15 to 20 lifespan, hence them "outlasting" the car. In fact, a major recycling path for these batteries once the car is retired is to be used in large scale power storage systems! Or the batteries can be recycled of their lithium and become new batteries.