I want to buy an electric vehicle, but the industry designs them with an expiration date!

Electric vehicle battery systems are increasingly treated as sealed, indivisible units. In practice, this means that a vehicle may be declared economically irreparable not because it is broken, but because its battery has degraded beyond a manufacturer-defined threshold. This applies not only to full electric vehicles, but also to plug-in hybrids, where a degraded battery can render an otherwise functional vehicle unviable to repair or insure.

This represents a sharp departure from how vehicles have historically been treated. Engines, transmissions and fuel systems degrade over time, yet they are repaired, rebuilt or replaced at component level. In contrast, battery systems are commonly treated as single-use assets. Once capacity loss, internal resistance or imbalance crosses an opaque boundary, the vehicle becomes a write-off, regardless of its mechanical condition.

The underlying issue is not battery chemistry. It is system design and market structure. Battery packs are built as highly integrated assemblies with proprietary diagnostics, bespoke module layouts and software controls that limit post-warranty serviceability. As a result, replacement options are restricted, repair decisions default to full pack replacement and insurers increasingly treat battery degradation as terminal.

A meaningful response does not require identical battery designs across manufacturers. It requires standardisation at the right level. In addition to standardised diagnostic and testing interfaces, battery systems should be built from standardised, replaceable modules. A limited set of module formats, with defined mechanical, electrical and thermal interfaces, would allow degraded or failed modules to be replaced without discarding the entire pack.

Without module standardisation, repairability remains theoretical. Even if diagnostics and testing are open, a unique module format per model ensures that replacement remains costly, slow or impossible once production ends. Standardised modules, by contrast, allow parts availability beyond a single vehicle generation and enable refurbishment, reuse and secondary markets.

Standardised battery management system interfaces are a necessary complement. Manufacturers should remain free to implement internal control strategies, but every pack must expose a common external interface for diagnostics, testing and commissioning. This interface should provide objective information on electrical state, thermal limits, isolation status, fault history and comparable state-of-health metrics. A repaired or reconfigured battery that passes defined tests should be considered legally serviceable.

 After Warranty, There Is No Market

This has direct implications for insurance and vehicle valuation. Today, many hybrids and electric vehicles are written off not due to physical damage, but due to predicted future battery performance. Capacity loss alone, even within normal degradation patterns, can be sufficient to exceed repair cost thresholds. This creates a perverse outcome in which vehicles are scrapped while still mechanically sound, undermining both environmental goals and consumer trust.

In practice, this creates a hard economic cliff once battery warranties expire. Moderate degradation is normal for lithium-based traction batteries, but once usable capacity falls into the 60 percent range, many electric vehicles lose nearly all market value. Replacement pack pricing routinely exceeds the value of the car itself, leaving a vehicle that still functions but has no economic path forward. Ownership becomes a one-way proposition: use it until it fails, then scrap it.

 Policy, Not Physics

Physical damage assessment follows the same pattern. Battery packs are at times condemned by the manufacturer after minor deformation caused by rocks, curbs or catching underbody lining hardware, even when that deformation is limited to non-critical outer areas of the pack. This is a policy outcome, not a structural necessity. Requiring manufacturers to declare structural and non-structural zones, along with inspection tolerances and approved repair paths, would reduce unnecessary pack replacement without compromising safety. Outer pack shells are not treated as replaceable parts. 

Software restrictions make the situation worse. Mechanisms that prevent the commissioning of repaired or refurbished battery packs turn design decisions into permanent lock-in. Claims of security or theft prevention do not justify this in the context of parts compatibility. A battery pack that meets defined electrical and safety criteria should not be rejected by software. If repaired systems cannot be commissioned through a documented, non-discriminatory process, battery packs are not serviceable components at all, but disposable units enforced by code.

Concerns that such standardisation would increase costs are not supported by historical precedent. Interface and module standardisation enable economies of scale and introduce competition in battery manufacturing and refurbishment, putting downward pressure on pack prices. The transition would not be frictionless. Short-term complexity and safety challenges are real as independent repair capability develops, but this does not negate the long-term case for repairability by qualified professionals. 

 The Price of Durability

The current model of industry self-regulation has not prevented the emergence of de facto disposable vehicles. Liability incentives, proprietary control and information asymmetry all push toward early write-offs. Changing this does not require breakthroughs, but it does require opening the market. Standardisation that enables competition, combined with objective, testable service criteria, would allow battery prices to fall to levels where replacement is viable. Until full packs reach the four-figure range, electric vehicles will remain consumables by design rather than durable goods.

This is not an unsolved engineering problem. It is a choice about whether vehicles are designed to be maintained or replaced.