Here at Jersey Electricity we are often asked how long electric car batteries last. The answer is longer than you might think. Nissan claims the batteries in its Leaf EVs will last 22 years, an estimated 10-12 years longer than the average life of the car itself.
Nissan’s conclusions come after it monitored battery degradation on more than 400,000 Leafs it has sold in Europe since launching the first generation in 2011. Speaking at the Automotive News Europe Congress in Gothenburg, Sweden, Managing Director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services Francisco Carranza said: ‘We are going to have to recover those batteries.’
Nissan is considering a number of options for reuse. It already has a three megawatt storage system at Amsterdam’s Johan Cryuff Arena, which uses 148 new and used Leaf batteries. Last year, the company debuted a streetlight powered by used Leaf batteries and solar panels.
Here in Jersey, though we are planning to install the first solar car-port on the Queen’s Road car-park we rent to B&Q, it will not host an EV charge point. However, though likely to be some time off, if EV uptake continues to grow, we envisage some level of local storage being used to give relief to our network during periods of heavy EV demand.
