One of the biggest reasons people hesitate to buy an electric vehicle is range anxiety.
The assumption is quite simple: batteries age with time, resulting in a shorter range, and within a few years of purchase, your shiny new EV becomes a glorified city ride.
How much range are EVs actually losing over time?
However, new data from Recurrent suggests otherwise. According to the firm’s analysis of over a billion miles of real-world driving data, an average electric vehicle retains 97% of its original range after three years, and 95% after five years.
To put that in perspective, a 2026 model that offers 325 miles today would still deliver around 309 miles five years from now. That, in my opinion, is a loss that most would fail to notice on a day-to-day basis.
Reinforcing this data, 68% of the 2023 EV models still exceed their original EPA-estimated range today. In other words, real-world performance has actually outperformed the official figures for a majority of those vehicles.
Which brands are holding up the best?
In a crowded market, some manufacturers are doing better than others. Cadillac, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes, and Rivian show no noticeable range loss over the first five years of driving and charging.
Per the report, automakers are engineering this outcome by reserving hidden battery capacity (or a couple of miles of hidden range) and releasing OTA updates that fine-tune range algorithms as the vehicle ages.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the batteries in EVs aren’t aging. They technically are, but it’s the smart software and engineering that are increasingly making up for the decline, in tangible ways that the driver actually cares about.
Recurrent’s billion-mile dataset dismantles one of the most prevalent and stubborn customer fears of the EV industry. It also highlights how automakers aren’t just building bigger batteries, but they’re building smarter ones that hold up better over time.
