The case of an early Volkswagen ID.3 1ST that appeared to have lost 7.5% of its original battery capacity the first year usage is back – Volkswagen has confirmed a significant decrease in capacity.

Let’s remember it Battery life – an EV enthusiast and YouTuber – tested his ID.3 1ST at 90 km / h (56 mph) and 22,644 km (14,073 miles) after the first year.

The comparison of range and energy consumption – when new and after the first year – showed that the battery delivered 4.4 kWh (or 7.5%) less energy.

It’s a pretty high value, but the use case was also specific: “… the car covered the first 15,000 km (9,000 miles) within the first three months after ownership. At that time it was almost exclusively (90%) fully charged using 100 kW DC quick chargers and regularly discharged below 10% state of charge (SOC). Later the usage profile changed to mainly 11 kW AC and up to 80% SOC. “

Battery life notes that there were many negative or emotional comments about the results or the methodology. It’s very unfortunate as bloggers are essentially our frontline soldiers trying to scout EVs, record and collect the valuable data.

According to the update, Battery life checked the ID.3 with an Autoscanner Pro app, which showed an available battery capacity of 54,148.72 Wh (that is 6.6% less than the usable 58 kWh of a total of 62 kWh of a new car).

In the next step, Volkswagen was asked about the battery capacity – the State of Health (SOH). It happened after 14 months and over 25,000 km (16,000 miles).

A Volkswagen Service Center carried out a special charging / discharging procedure and found its devices to be 92% healthy. It means 8% capacity loss.

It suggests that the amateurish estimate of 7.5% after 12 months of ownership may be more accurate than expected.

Test result from Volkswagen:

At the same time it is worth noting – and Battery life points out – that the new electric vehicles lose a few percent of the battery capacity anyway (then “the degradation slows down”). In addition, there is the specific application.

For us it is great to see that users can try to estimate the loss of battery capacity, that they can check this in the service center and that we have another important data point. Time will tell whether it is the worst case scenario or the typical scenario. Finally because Battery life will use the car for a 3 year lease, we may be able to see the capacity loss progress.