I’ve enjoyed my iPhone 15 Pro for two years now, and it still works about as well as the day I got it. But I know that at some point in time, it may wear out. Its lithium-ion battery will eventually refuse to hold a charge, as degradation via charging and time catch up with the device. The electrolyte inside will stop working, and it’ll be time to repair or replace the battery inside. I would know; I’ve done it twice before, once on my iPhone XR and once on my iPhone 12. I’ve never been too concerned.
Yet when it comes to electric cars, I don’t have that same confidence. Lately, I’ve been tempted by the surprisingly alluring amount of low-priced used EVs. These cars aren’t even that old, and they often retail for a third of what they went for new. Take the Polestar 2 and Mustang Mach-E GT, for example. They have not-so-old-supercar levels of grip and output, all for less than the price of a brand-new base-model Honda Civic. Both would be solid replacements for gas-powered 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth, which, at 165,000 miles, has a broken sunroof, a persistent oil leak, and is showing its age.
Still, I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on any of the deals I’ve seen on the market. We all know that EVs lose battery capacity and range as they age. But figuring out how healthy a specific car’s battery is compared to when it was new isn’t easy. Whereas phone manufacturers have built straightforward battery health monitoring menus right into their devices, EVs are often black boxes.
That’s bad for consumers, and it leaves me with too many unknowns to be confident in a purchase. There was a set of regulations coming into play that could have given me and others more peace of mind, but they’re all gone now. Thank President Trump for that.
The Need For Battery Monitors, Explained
Battery degradation is a fact of life with any EV, period. Charging, use, and environment take their toll on the big box of electrons stored under the car. All batteries will eventually wear out.
But finding out how healthy a car’s battery truly is is frustratingly inconsistent. I want to know: What is a battery’s state of health? Has the car been primarily fast-charged for most of its life—and if so, what kind of toll has that taken?
Tell this to any average Joe dealer looking to turn a cheap car from auction around to a consumer, and they’ll likely just stare at you wide-eyed. I see their “good battery health” or “low-mile” signs on the ads, but what does that even mean in context? I’m not sure they even know themselves.
When I had my old Mitsubishi i-MiEV, it wasn’t super hard to get access to a scan tool and a (third-party, unsupported by the manufacturer) program that allowed me to physically count and measure how many volts each cell reported, and divide that against the car’s original rating when it was new.
However, a lot of newer EVs require more complicated, dealer-only scan tools to do the same job. Any Polestar or Volvo EV will require access to VIDA, a dealer-only software program that requires an internet connection so the car can contact Volvo’s servers. It’s a similar story with most Hyundai, GM, VW, and Ford EVs. All need special software and a technician; that’s not always practical for dealerships that may not have EV-certified technicians, or say, an inspection done via a private sale. These programs often require expensive software licenses, which are out of reach or impractical for a small-time hobbyist or independent shops.
Photo by: InsideEVs
Tesla is a little more forgiving in some ways, since a battery health test has been a fixture of its relatively user-friendly service mode. But that only goes so far. The test can only be done once every six months and requires a connection to a level 2 charging post for about a day. While other traditional brands can likely sort out any battery or electronic issues via a pre-purchase inspection from a licensed dealer (that has an EV tech), Tesla itself will not do any sort of third-party pre-purchase inspections.
Of course, studies show that modern EV batteries are generally reliable and last a long time. On the whole, degradation isn’t anywhere near as severe as most EV enthusiasts, experts, and carmakers may have thought. Warranties are generally good despite the lack of a true standard for batteries and components. And there are more than a few private companies that attempt to quantify battery capacity and health using their own methods and tools.
Odds are that a given EV’s battery is fine, but there are always outliers. A lot of these devices are still new, and there are reasons why a battery could prematurely fail. It should be more straightforward for consumers to do their due diligence.
Photo by: Patrick George
For internal-combustion cars, there are simple mechanical or electronic tests that can be done to ascertain the car’s engine or transmission health. Plug in an OBD II dongle, and it’s easy to scan for codes. If you’re in search of a more complete picture, consumers can do (or pay someone to do) things like engine compression testing and head gasket leakdown tests to understand exactly what shape a vehicle’s underlying mechanicals are in.
Plenty of not-so-old cars can have issues. But for EVs, it can be unnecessarily tricky to find out what they are, especially if any looming issues are battery-related.
I just want to know: How much can the battery hold now, versus when it was new? My phone and my computer do this very well; I can see that in a simple system settings menu. Yet an electric car can’t do the same?
Things Could Get Better Soon?
I’m not the only one who’s frustrated with the lack of transparency, either.
The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) legislation, meant to boost EV sales and wean Californians (and later 12 more states) off of combustion, included standards and provisions for battery health starting with the 2026 model year. It required that zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) include a battery health monitor in the infotainment system and created warranty standards for batteries. True, this system is based on vehicle range and not energy left in the battery, but it does standardize what we should be able to expect from an EV as it ages.
CARB’s logic is crystal clear. “Prospective drivers, especially in the used vehicle market, should have the ability to evaluate the state of the vehicle and health of the battery (a high-cost component for repair) to encourage them to purchase a ZEV over a conventional vehicle and to be able to appropriately value individual used ZEVs. Repair technicians, particularly independent technicians, need to be able to access vehicle data, diagnostic tools, and manufacturer-developed diagnostic and repair information to assess the vehicle’s need for repair and carry out necessary repairs appropriately,” the agency said in ACC II's Initial Statement of Reasons.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2027-2032 Multi-Pollutant Standards, finalized in 2024, seconded CARB’s thinking. Those rules included similar battery durability requirements and said operator-accessible battery health monitors had to be implemented on 2027-model-year cars and up. The idea was that EVs that are built to last are key to reducing carbon emissions.
Volvo EX30 Battery Health Monitor
Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs
This kind of industry-wide battery state-of-health (SOH) monitoring would help people make better buying decisions, Chris Harto, manager of sustainability advocacy at Consumer Reports, told me via email.
“Having credible battery SOH monitoring on all EVs is an obvious and important consumer protection, and is extremely valuable for helping to ensure that used vehicle buyers know the condition of the specific vehicle they are considering buying,” Harto said.
And it’s already showing up on some cars. While driving the 2026 Volvo EX30 Cross Country, I was going through its menus and found the battery health status monitor. Hyundai and Kia have them implemented in 2026 model year vehicles, too. When I reached out to Hyundai for clarification about its addition of the battery life monitoring for 2026, it stated that the monitor was added to be in compliance with ACC II.
Or maybe not?
The slash-and-burn approach to environmental regulations in the Trump 2.0 era has claimed both of these rules. Upon assuming office in 2025, President Trump announced his intention to get rid of California’s emissions standards that are stricter than the EPA’s. Later that year, Congress snatched California’s EPA waivers, nullifying ACC II.
Photo by: InsideEVs
At the federal level, the EPA is being defanged too. In February, the agency rescinded the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, eliminating the legal basis for regulating and pushing back on carbon emissions. As a result, the agency also stripped out anything of the sort from regulations already on the books—including the new requirement for battery monitoring software to ensure that EV batteries last.
“Note that we are nevertheless finalizing the proposed change to remove 40 CFR 85.2103(d)(3), which established the newly required battery monitor as the basis for making battery-related warranty claims; since we are removing the requirement to install these dashboard-mounted battery monitors in this rulemaking, warranty implementation will necessarily proceed without the benefit of information from the battery monitor,” the EPA said in a final rule published to the Federal Register on February 18.
Many legal experts think that what Trump and Congress have done is illegal, and the decisions have sparked lawsuits from several states and environmental groups. The battle over U.S. environmental regulations is far from over and decided.
For now, battery health monitors have popped up on some models. But they may never show up on others. And I'd argue this isn't just an issue for car buyers. Dealerships deserve to understand what shape the cars are in, so they can price them appropriately. And being transparent about battery health works in the favor of carmakers too.
“I would think it would be in the manufacturer's best interest to implement these systems in their vehicles, regardless of if they are required to do so by regulators. Trusted and credible battery state of health should help support resale values, which should help both buyers of their vehicles and their leasing operations,” said Harto.
Above all, despite the strides that modern EVs have made, I think consumers have a right to understand exactly what the hell is going on with their cars. Finding out what shape they’re in should be just as easy as checking a menu on your phone. And taking that away doesn’t help anyone.
Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com
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