This is a short summary of an article that appeared in the Globe and Mail May 8. It was written by freelance journalist and automotive specialist Krystyna Lagowski, who the Globe recalls as “a valued member of the Globe Drive team” before she died last October. We remember Krystyna, too, as a committed, professional, always curious writer for the conference publishing firm that preceded our work on The Mix. The story leads this week’s Cities & Communities digest in her honour.
Long-term electric vehicle owners are beginning to realize that their batteries are outliving the cars, while surveys show that seeing is believing as newer buyers move past their initial anxiety with EVs, automotive journalist Krystyna Lagowski writes for the Globe and Mail.
Lagowski’s coverage carries implications for cities working to meet emission reduction targets and power utilities looking ahead to greater reliance on distributed energy resources (DERs), as different models emerge to use EV batteries for demand response or as storage for virtual power plants.
The article cites a Globe and Mail survey in which concerns over battery life were a concern for 40% of respondents who said they weren’t considering a future EV purchase. But those concerns don’t hold up against hands-on experience. Analysis by Seattle-based Recurrent Motors Inc. found that EV batteries had at least 90% of their original range after being driven for more than 160,000 kilometres. And a study by the Canadian Automobile Association found that battery degradation was a serious or moderate concern for 54% of EV owners before they made their purchases, but only 13% afterwards.
“This idea that you’ll have to replace a battery over the life of the car is probably, in most cases, wrong,” said Plug’n Drive President Cara Clairman, noting that 12-year-old batteries are still running well for average drivers.
Lagowski also talked to Darryl Kolewaski, owner of Current Taxi, an all-Tesla taxi fleet in Kelowna, British Columbia. He said the one car in his fleet that needed its battery replaced had covered 430,000 kilometres in six years. Even at a replacement cost of C$13,000, “the cost and maintenance savings on the vehicle far outweigh what we paid for a new battery,” he said.
“The batteries are not babied,” Kolewaski told the Globe. “The cars are supercharged five to seven times a day and run 23-hour shifts. We do everything Tesla tells us not to do, and it is still not easy to kill them.”
Read the rest of Krystyna Lagowski’s coverage here.
