Volkswagen ID.3 Lost 10 Percent of Its Battery Capacity After Two Years and 30,000 Miles

Many people consider electric vehicles like big phones (or laptops) on wheels. Although they are not far off, they usually do it for the wrong reasons. All modern cars are computers on wheels, but electric vehicles also have a Li-ion battery. In the case of phones and laptops, their battery loses capacity very quickly, and after about three years, it becomes unusable. The analogy makes people think an EV will also need a new battery just as fast, making it a money pit after a short service life.

This couldn't be further from the truth, as many electric vehicles have proved. Recycling companies complain about not having enough EV batteries to recycle precisely because they rarely fail. Battery degradation is also minimal, thanks to modern battery management systems, which keep battery cells at an optimum temperature and state of charge.

There are many electric vehicles on the original battery that lost less than 10% after many years of abuse. Tesla expects its batteries to retain 88% of their original capacity even after 200,000 miles (320,000 km) of usage. This is the average mileage when a vehicle is usually scrapped in the US, so it should be enough for the entire vehicle's life.

Tesla owners showed that this projection is accurate. Last year, we learned that a 10-year-old Tesla Model S with 102,000 miles (164,000 km) lost only 6% of its battery capacity. Other Tesla owners confirmed that battery degradation is between 6% and 13% after 100,000-200,000 miles. An independent study revealed that most of the battery degradation occurs in the first 20,000 miles (32,000 km) and then stabilizes as it approaches 100,000 miles (161,000 km).

But this is not always true, as electric vehicles and even individual battery cells are not built equal. Some degrade faster, and some are better in this regard. Bjorn Nyland, a Dutch YouTuber who is known for its EV insights, wanted to know how much battery capacity a Volkswagen ID.3 lost after two years and 30,000 miles (48,000 km). Nyland performs this kind of test on a regular basis so it can compare the results between different EV models.

If you are not familiar with the model, the Volkswagen ID.3 is the smaller brother of the ID.4 and is currently sold in Europe and Asia but not in the US. It shares the MEB platform and most of the characteristics with the American ID.4, so whatever Nyland found about it should also be relevant to the ID.4. In this case, the ID.3 is powered by a 62-kWh battery (58 kWh usable capacity), which is the same as the base battery in the US-built ID.4.

Nyland's test showed that the ID.3 lost a whopping 10% of the original battery capacity, with a usable capacity of 52.1 kWh. This might not be entirely accurate, depending on the test's conditions, but it's fair to say that the YouTuber does all his tests in similar conditions. As such, it's worth mentioning that the ID.3 lost more than a Tesla Model 3 Performance (5.3% degradation after 38,000 miles/62,000 km) or a BMW i3 (1.6% degradation after 94,000 miles/152,000 km). The closest it got to the Volkswagen was a Mercedes-Benz EQC, with an 8.4% degradation. Still, that happened after 145,000 miles/233,000 km.