Buying a used electric car often comes with one nagging worry: how much life is really left in the battery. A fresh dataset from Swedish used car dealer Carla suggests that worry is largely misplaced. Drawing on almost 10,000 battery health checks collected between 2022 and 2026, the figures show that many mainstream EVs are still running at close to full strength well past 100,000 kilometers on the odometer.
Korean models lead the pack
The strongest performer in the dataset is the Kia e-Niro fitted with the 64 kWh battery, holding onto roughly 97 percent of its original capacity even at high mileage. The Hyundai Kona Electric with the same size battery is barely behind it. A handful of other familiar names, including the Kia EV6, Volvo XC40 Recharge and Polestar 2, all stay comfortably above the 94 percent mark.
The battery supplier matters as much as the car itself
One of the more useful takeaways from the data is that the model name alone does not tell the whole story. Battery chemistry and manufacturer can make a real difference, even within the same car.
The Tesla Model 3 illustrates this clearly. Cars fitted with CATL’s LFP battery degrade noticeably slower than those built with cells from LG or Panasonic, despite covering the same distance.
Tesla Model 3, battery capacity remaining after 100,000 km
CATL LFP: 93.3 percent
LG Chem: 91.5 percent
Panasonic 77.8: 89.8 percent
Panasonic 52.4: 88.2 percent
In practice, this means two used Model 3 units that look identical on paper could be sitting on very different battery health, depending purely on which cell supplier built that particular car.
A dataset worth reading with some perspective
The numbers are reassuring, but they come with a few caveats worth keeping in mind. The analysis was produced by Carla, a company that sells used electric vehicles itself, so it has a commercial interest in the outcome. The tests were also all carried out using the AVILOO measurement system, and Carla has not published how many vehicles sit behind each individual model’s average, which makes it harder to judge how representative the figures truly are.
None of that undermines the broader picture, though. The evidence continues to build that EV batteries age more gracefully than their reputation suggests. A battery health check is still worth doing before buying any used electric car, but on the strength of this data, the battery is rarely the dealbreaker that shoppers expect it to be.
