FOR YEARS, ONE of the most persistent worries holding Irish motorists back from electric cars has been the battery. How long will it last? What happens when it degrades? And is it really any better if it simply replaces oil with dangerous mining somewhere else?

New real-world data suggests many of those fears are increasingly outdated. At the same time, the industry is racing towards the next big leap in battery technology – solid-state batteries – widely seen as the next major breakthrough in electric motoring.

That growing confidence is already visible closer to home.

On DoneDeal Cars, electric vehicles are increasingly being listed and sold with higher mileage than even a few years ago, a sign that buyers are becoming more comfortable with long-term battery durability.

Battery technology has evolved quickly since the early Nissan Leaf models with a 24 kWh lithium-ion battery pack and, with one in four of the nearly 7,000 new models listed on the website being electric vehicles, some now have battery sizes up over 100kWh which offer greater range, with costs coming down as new entrants enter the market.

Search interest in January has increased too, with a 17% increase in EV-specific fuel-type searches in January compared to January 2025. We are expecting to see an increase in the market share of new EV sales in 2026, up from last year’s 19%, with dealers reporting strong EV registrations in the first weeks of the year.

A large-scale international study analysing data by Geotab from more than 22,000 electric cars and vans shows modern EV batteries are degrading at around 2% per year on average.

Put simply, an electric car offering a realistic 400km of range when new should still deliver well over 320km after 10........

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