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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New real-world data suggests many of those fears are increasingly outdated.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 of 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 years. For Irish drivers – where the average daily commute is well under 50km – that level of degradation is largely academic.
Even vehicles that rely more heavily on public fast charging perform better than many expect. Frequent use of high-power DC chargers can increase degradation slightly, but still only to around 3% per year, rather than the dramatic drop-offs many buyers fear. For most owners, the battery will comfortably outlast the time they keep the car.
Today’s electric cars use lithium-ion batteries with a liquid electrolyte inside the cell. It’s proven, reliable technology, but it does place limits on how fast a battery can charge, how much energy it can store, and how it behaves under extreme heat or cold.
A solid-state battery replaces that liquid electrolyte with a solid material. That change may sound technical, but the benefits are easy to understand. Solid-state batteries can store more energy in the same space, which means longer range without needing a bigger battery. They can charge faster without overheating, they are inherently safer because there is no flammable liquid involved, and they tend to cope better with cold weather. Just as importantly, they are designed to degrade more slowly over time.
That combination is why solid-state technology is so often described as the next big step for electric cars. In the real world, solid-state batteries could add about 10–30% range at first – with bigger gains possible later – but charging speed and longevity may be the bigger win.
This is where many people pause – and fairly so.
The honest answer is that no battery is completely free of mining. Today’s lithium-ion batteries rely on materials such as lithium, nickel and sometimes cobalt. Solid-state batteries don’t eliminate mining altogether, but they do change the equation.
Many solid-state designs significantly reduce or remove cobalt, the material most often associated with poor working conditions. Because these batteries can store more energy in a smaller package, they also require fewer raw materials for the same driving range. And because they are expected to last longer, fewer batteries need to be produced over the lifetime of a car, which further reduces demand for newly mined materials.
Lithium itself is not going away, but how it is sourced is changing. New extraction methods aim to use less water, and Europe is pushing for more locally sourced lithium under stricter environmental standards as part of a broader effort to clean up battery supply chains.
Another part of the story that often gets overlooked is recycling. EV batteries are already among the most recyclable components in modern cars, with the vast majority of valuable materials recoverable at end of life. Many batteries also go on to live a second life, storing energy in homes or supporting the electricity grid, before they are eventually recycled. As electric cars become more common, recycled material will increasingly feed back into new batteries, reducing the need for fresh mining even further.
Finnish firm Donut Lab has grabbed headlines by claiming it has the world’s first production-ready all-solid-state battery, already in use in electric motorcycles from Verge Motorcycles.
Those claims have been questioned by rivals, including SVOLT Energy, underlining just how competitive and valuable this technology has become. Independent validation will ultimately decide who is right, but the debate itself shows how close solid-state batteries are to real-world use.
Some carmakers are now putting dates on it. Chery says its Exeed Liefeng shooting brake will arrive in 2026 with a solid-state battery, while European manufacturers are taking a slower, more cautious approach.
At IAA Mobility, Volkswagen Group, alongside PowerCo and Elli, outlined a “Made in Europe” battery strategy focused on steady, verifiable progress rather than headline-grabbing promises. Volkswagen Group demonstrated the new technology in a Ducati motorbike but promise it will come soon in an urban crossover in their Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra brands.
Taken together, the picture is increasingly reassuring. Today’s electric cars already have batteries that last far longer than many feared. Solid-state technology promises to improve things again – not by being perfect, but by being better.
As buyer behaviour on DoneDeal Cars increasingly shows, confidence in EV ownership is quietly building. Even if solid-state batteries take a few more years to reach the mainstream, battery anxiety – and many concerns around mining – are fast becoming yesterday’s problem.
Paddy Comyn is the Head of Automotive Content and Communications with DoneDeal Cars. He has been involved in the Irish Motor Industry for more than 25 years.
Note: Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with Done Deal Ltd
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