Can an electric car last as long as my 20-year-old 2005 Holden VZ Commodore One Tonner? Or will EVs such as the Tesla Model Y, MG4 and BYD Seal fail to go the distance?
By Samuel Irvine · 08 Feb 2025
I just had my 05' Holden VZ Commodore One Tonner serviced.At 20 years and 225,000km old, it has seen a lot of change in this world, including the end of the Holden brand itself.But despite its age, it still serves its purpose. “Keep the oil changes regular and you shouldn’t have any issues,” my mechanic told me.It's got two seats, a vinyl dashboard, a droopy headliner, a bullbar and a 2.5m metre steel tray that has moved everything from soil to scrap metal to countless friend's and family member’s furniture.The VZ has paid itself off in a million ways more than one and its endurance is a testament to the Holden brand and the 3.6-litre Alloytec engine that powers it (so long as you keep it up to date on maintenance).As its third owner, I can’t help but think what the first owner might have thought if I told them way back in June 2005, when they bought it from Epsom Holden in Bendigo, that 20 years later it would still be chugging along, now amongst electric cars.And who knows, potentially one day (if I keep up those oil changes) self-driving cars.See, that’s the thing about cars with combustion engines, especially older ones, that makes them so special.An invention like the electric car isn’t like what the smartphone was to the flip phone or Netflix was to the DVD; it can’t simply send old cars like mine to the trash heap.No, a good combustion-engine car is built to last. It might demand regular attention and maintenance, but look after it, and it will last generations.And that makes me wonder, can EVs, which are still in their relative infancy on the mainstream market, provide the same level of longevity?Frankly, we don’t know, and the reality is we aren’t likely to know for some time.In Australia, the average age of a car is 10.4 years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Car census, which is far longer than most electric cars have even been on sale.Take Australia’s best-selling electric car for example, the Tesla Model Y, which has only been on sale here since 2022.Some clues, however, can be found in the original EV models that do surpass that age bracket. Namely, the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, Tesla Model S and Mitsubishi i:MiEV, which all landed here between 2012 and 2014.A small volume of second-hand listings of those cars on Autotrader, Gumtree Cars, CarsGuide and competitor’s websites show the vast majority of those models with less than 100,000km on the odometer, which, in fairness, is likely a product of them being city cars.The Model S, on the other hand, has a couple of notable exceptions exceeding 200,000km, despite most sitting comfortably under.Using Telematics company GEOTAB’s recent findings that lithium-ion batteries deplete at a rate of about 1.8 per cent per year under moderate conditions, that means most of those cars would have spent about 18 to 21.6 per cent of their battery capacity.However, that depreciation figure assumes they are being charged at a rate of between 20 to 80 per cent, abstaining from DC fast-charging charging and limiting exposure to extreme heat, which is not always possible in Australia.For argument's sake, though, let's just say all of those conditions have been adhered to. On a mid-range Tesla Model S 85, that might mean you only have 412km of the 502km worth of range left from when you bought it, which is less than what I yield out of a 70-litre tank in the VZ.In theory, however, you would only be able to use 80 per cent of that amount, meaning real range is about 329km, which isn’t shocking, but it certainly isn’t great either.Thankfully, EVs have come a long way since their early days and range is gradually ticking upwards. So are warranties, which is a direct result of a brand’s growing confidence in their products.Tesla currently offers a Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty of four-years/80,000km, which covers everything aside from the battery and drive unit.Those are covered by a much better eight-year/160,000km battery warranty, or 192,000km on its Long Range and Performance variants, along with a 70 per cent battery retention guarantee over that period.Despite the relatively low Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty, overall it is hard to deny it is pretty impressive, especially when compared to the original warranty of my VZ, which was a paltry three-years/100,000km.Keep in mind too that Tesla is on the lower end of the warranty spectrum.MG offers a whopping 10-years/250,000km battery warranty on its electric cars such as the MG4 and ZS EV, which is the same deal it offers on its petrol cars.That ought to give EV owners a sense of security that their car won’t all the sudden lose tremendous amounts of range or require a new battery after a short period of time.But whether they prove as reliable as my trusty One Tonner, only time will tell.