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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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Electric Vehicles
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So, a couple of things: Personally, never been afraid of degradation much, outside of the old Leafs of course. What's always scared me about EVs is the chance of a sudden battery failure. Less and less of a problem now that individual cells can be replaced on many models rather than replacing a battery pack that costs more than the car (yes, used battery packs are an option, but IMO a bad middle ground between cell-level replacement vs new pack - you don't get the warranty of the new pack or the cheapness of individual cell replacement), but it's still an issue EV owners seem to mind, because there are TONS of 6-7 year old EVs for sale super cheap. Because the battery warranty is 8 years.
And secondly, I wasn't actually trying to say anything about having to be worried about the risk of failure in the parent comment, I was talking about the massive depreciation you take on if you buy a new or lightly used EV (because people are afraid of batteries). Meaning I find it to be a great deal to buy one that's already near the end of that battery warranty, you save tens of thousands vs getting a 2 year old one (which itself is, yes, much cheaper than a brand new one).
You know what’s funny is my sister has my old Nissan leaf and it’s still going. The range isn’t great but for a comfortable grocery getter that handles great in the Ohio winter and will likely kill a fucking panzer in a head on collision, it’s prefect. Her family has beat on that thing in ways that would bring shame to the Chrysler minivan we grew up with in the early 90s. (Dad playing mechanic killed it. It wasn’t Chrysler that killed that wood-paneled tardis. It was dad.) she has 2 child seats in the back and it’s basically a rolling bunker (back seats anyway. Frontal offset isn’t stellar on this model)
I got it used as a cheap way to get to and from college and it was the only way I could afford college. But even then, that leaf will not die! It’s on its second suspension, its covered in little kid ick, the damn touchscreen was clobbered by what I assume involved the autistic nephew, but otherwise it will not die.
Meanwhile the bolt I replaced it with only asks for tires.
These things are the only remotely practical way to do pritvate transportstion.
Hey if it works for her, that's great. I've said it elsewhere in the thread, but battery lifetime is completely unpredictable on an individual level. You COULD develop a bad cell even very early in its life, effectively completely disabling a battery pack that hadn't even really degraded much yet... Or you could also get an absolute peach that lasts 3x longer than the average battery of its kind before the device (vehicle) it's in gets retired with the battery still functioning. Anything in between could happen too.
And my experience with non-car lithium batteries which I've touched a LOT of, has been that on average, degradation does tend to level off. For Macbooks it was around 80-90% capacity where it would usually level. Meaning with that Leaf being as old as it is, I would expect degradation to have slowed down on that.
Every car is a risk. Batteries are a lower risk than transmissions. if you are willing to accept the risk of a transmission, you’ll be fine with a battery.