Geely chief warns of electric vehicle battery lifespan problem

Geely chief's warning

Eric Li (Li Shufu), chairman of Geely Holding Group, said that the mismatch between the service life of electric vehicles and their batteries could become a serious problem as the EV fleet ages. This is reported by CarNewsChina, which Gazeta.Ru cites. According to Li, replacing or repairing degraded batteries is too expensive, which may make operating functional but older cars economically unviable.

The essence of the problem and the figures

The top executive noted that the problem has not yet emerged on a mass scale because the EV market is relatively young. According to his information, a modern car has a 15-year life cycle: when a car turns 10, it still has five to six years of potential service life left, but the high cost of battery replacement or repair makes further use unviable. The problem is already affecting the secondary market: roughly four out of five dealers surveyed in China refuse to accept electric vehicles older than five years, while three-year-old cars retain only about 45% of their original value. According to CarNewsChina, a full battery pack replacement costs about 100,000 yuan (about 1.2 million rubles), while repairs cost 10,000–20,000 yuan (about 120,000–240,000 rubles).

Context: the bet on battery swapping

The statement came against the backdrop of expanding cooperation between Geely and Nio in battery swapping: in September, Geely transferred its Yiyi Power business and 640 million yuan in exchange for a 30% stake in Nio Power. Thus, the company whose head warns about the high cost of replacing battery packs is simultaneously investing in a battery swap service — the publications do not offer an explanation of this connection, so its nature remains an open question.