According to a recent BYD post on Google+, some BYD e6 taxis have been tested for three years now. One result so far is that these taxis have only lost 5% of their range.
From the BYD post: “2 #BYD #e6 taxis, with accumulated mileage of nearly 300,000 km for each, are still able to run for 282.1 km and 286.8 km respectively after being fully charged with the air-conditioning on and the screenwiper working. It’s a great proof that the drive range of BYD e6 is #perfect for taxi operation and the #super service durability of BYD #Fe #battery has also been proved in a persuasive way.”
The Google+ friend who shared this with me had this useful bit added (minor changes for US punctuation style):
3 years taxi test, nearly 300,000 km and only around 5% less range. I asked several taxi drivers in Salzburg, Munich, and Vienna. The average is 60,000 km per year and car at 2 drivers for 1 car.
My oldest car ever was a Renault Espace TDX built 1988. I sold it with 287,000 km in 1995 in bad condition. Oil loose, the Diesel injection system lost fuel. I sold it for 2500 EUR. New 1988 about 25,000 EUR. 90% loss in value.
But my Renault Espace TDX made the 287,000 km mainly on long distances. City traffic makes much more stress for the car. Here my statistic from my last 20,000 km with this car
http://www.pege.org/fuel/renault.htmWhat would You pay for such a used Taxi?
Maybe 25,000 EUR? Maybe even more, because 5% less range at the old batteries are still about twice what other new electric cars have range.
Good comments. And certainly some good results from BYD. Your thoughts?
Title and article do not match. 300,000 miles does not equal 300,000km. Title should say 180,000 miles. Still quite impressive.
ugh, of course, thank you.
It would be a good idea to keep an eye on the Honda FiT EV and Mitsubishi iEV batteries as they accumulate some miles and years.
They are using the Toshiba SCiB lithium-ion battery which Toshiba claims to be good for 6,000 cycles. Scale that down to 4,000 cycles and the FiT’s range from 123 miles to 100 to be conservative. That’s a potential 400,000 mile range battery pack.