Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel says EV batteries should last about 15 years

JB Straubel, Tesla’s longtime chief technology officer, has given some insight into how long he believes electric vehicle batteries should last — about 15 years. This is critical to Straubel’s new business.

One of the most popular questions when it comes to electric vehicles is, “How long do batteries last?” And, I’m not talking about limits here. How long, how many miles or years will a battery pack last before replacing an electric vehicle?

The truth is, we don’t have a lot of data to answer this question because this latest wave of electric vehicles is still fairly recent, and the last generation of EVs is still on the road.

Apart from the packs that did have flaws, most of the battery packs replaced were in EVs with a high amount of mileage. For example, I had a Model X with over 400,000 miles, and it had a battery replacement with about 325,000 miles on it. But, for most EV owners who normally use their cars, we have to estimate the longevity of the battery pack based on battery wear, which for the most part is pretty low.

Now, in a new interview, Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel says he believes EV batteries should last 15 years, depending on usage:

What people aim for the car is a subjective thing, but I think it will easily be 15 years in most cases. I guess battery life would probably track the life of the vehicle. Personally, I think it’s less likely that people will put new batteries in an older car.

Straubel should be well aware that he was responsible for Tesla’s battery development until 2019 and has been part of the largest-ever deployment of battery capacity through Tesla’s vehicle fleet.

The engineer is closely monitoring the end life of EV batteries as it matters for his new company, Redwood Materials.

Redwood is developing new processes to recycle materials with a focus on electric car batteries. The company also recently announced that it is also getting into cathode and anode production with a 100 GWh battery material factory in the United States.

The longer an EV battery pack lasts, the better. But, one of the main advantages of EVs over gas-powered cars is that once finished, the battery pack is still extremely valuable due to the base metals in it.

Straubel’s new company is already working with Ford and Volvo to recycle packs at the end of their lives, but that’s only the beginning. Right now, there are only a few tens to hundreds of thousands of electric cars coming to the end of their lives each year, but if we are to believe Straubel’s timeline, that number will jump into the millions within 15 years.

Here is the full interview:

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