Does climate change accelerate EV battery ageing? Not so fast, researchers say

As electric vehicle (EV) use surges globally, scientists have raised concerns about the performance of such batteries in high temperatures, including the possible impact of climate change on their usable lifespan.But a study published this month by researchers in China and the US has found that major advances in EV battery technologies will mitigate the impact of future warming.They studied the impact by creating an advanced model that captures future climate change and EV battery degradation for 300 cities around the world.“Our study demonstrates that technological advancements in battery technology have largely offset future adverse effects of climate warming on battery lifespans,” the team said in a March 2 paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change.The researchers from the University of Michigan, Peking University and Zhejiang University discovered that a 2-degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in global temperature would on average lead to an 8 per cent reduction in the lifespan of old batteries, with a maximum decline of 30 per cent.