EV Battery Degradation Statistics 2026: 46 Models Compared at 100,000 km

We aggregated the degradation curves behind VoltChek — 489 reference data points across 72 model-variant curves, built from fleet telemetry studies, manufacturer reports, and owner-submitted battery readings — and asked one question: how much capacity does each EV model still have after 100,000 km? Here are the numbers, free to cite with a link back to this page.

The Headline Numbers

• Average state of health at 100,000 km across 46 models: 91.9%
• Median: 92.1% — half of all models retain more than 92% of their original capacity
• Average capacity loss: roughly 0.8% per 10,000 km of driving
• Best performers at 100,000 km: Lucid Air and Hyundai Ioniq 6 (94.2%), Kia EV6 (93.9%), Mercedes EQS (93.8%)
• The outlier: Nissan Leaf at 82.5% — nearly ten points below the field average

Put differently: for almost every modern EV, 100,000 km costs you less than a tenth of your battery. The fear that dominated EV buying advice a decade ago — that packs fade fast and fail young — is simply not what the data shows anymore.

Best Battery Retention at 100,000 km

• Lucid Air — 94.2%
• Hyundai Ioniq 6 — 94.2%
• Kia EV6 — 93.9%
• Mercedes EQS — 93.8%
• Hyundai Ioniq 5 — 93.7%
• Porsche Taycan — 93.5%
• Mercedes EQE — 93.5%
• Genesis GV60 — 93.5%
• BYD Seal — 93.5%
• Audi e-tron GT — 93.5%

The pattern is unmissable: every car in the top ten has sophisticated liquid thermal management, and the Hyundai-Kia-Genesis E-GMP platform places four cars in it. 800V architectures also keep fast-charging heat — the main accelerant of degradation — under control. We covered how to check these cars in the Ioniq 5 / EV6 battery guide.

The Middle of the Field

• Tesla Model 3 — 92.5%
• Tesla Model Y — 91.6%
• Rivian R1T / R1S — 92.2%
• BMW iX — 92.2%, BMW i4 — 92.5%
• Volkswagen ID.4 / ID.5 — 91.5%
• Ford Mustang Mach-E — 91.2%
• Tesla Model S / Model X — 91.0%

Teslas sit mid-pack rather than on top — solid, predictable degradation around 8% per 100,000 km, helped by mature battery management. Expected numbers by model year are in the Tesla battery health guide.

The Bottom of the Table

• Nissan Leaf — 82.5%
• Chevrolet Bolt EV — 89.0%
• Renault Zoe — 89.0%
• BMW i3 — 90.0%
• MG ZS EV — 90.5%

The Leaf's ten-point gap to the field has one cause: it is the only mainstream EV ever sold without active battery cooling. Heat is the primary driver of lithium-ion degradation, and the Leaf simply has no defense against it — which is why a used Leaf needs a battery check before purchase more than any other EV. The others at the bottom are early-generation packs with first-iteration chemistry and cooling.

At 150,000 km, the Gaps Widen

Models with data beyond 150,000 km show the same ordering with bigger spreads: the Ioniq 6 and Lucid Air still hold 92%, the EV6 and EQS around 91.5%, while early packs fall toward the low 80s. Degradation is also non-linear in the right direction — packs lose a few percent quickly in the first 30,000 km, then settle into a much slower decline. High-mileage EVs are better buys than their odometers suggest.

Methodology

These figures aggregate VoltChek's reference degradation curves: 489 data points across 72 model-variant-year curves covering 46 models and 18 brands. Sources include Geotab's 2026 fleet study, Recurrent Auto's used-EV dataset, the Tesla Impact Report, EV Database real-world figures, and community-submitted BMS readings. Values are interpolated at exactly 100,000 km per curve and averaged per model. Individual cars vary with climate and charging habits — see your own car's expected curve for a vehicle-specific number, or read how degradation works for the mechanisms behind these numbers.

How to measure your own car

Averages tell you what a model does across thousands of cars. They can't tell you what yours has done. For that you need to read the battery's own state of health over OBD2 — which takes an adapter and a vehicle-specific app.

The Bottom Line

Modern EV batteries lose roughly 8% of capacity in their first 100,000 km, the best lose under 6%, and only legacy air-cooled designs do meaningfully worse. If you're evaluating a specific car, run the free check to see where it should sit on its curve — and what a deviation from it tells you about the car's history.