Your car’s battery is one of the most important parts of your vehicle because if your battery dies, your car isn’t going anywhere. (Hopefully, the death of your battery happens in your own driveway, not at the store across town or while driving down the Interstate.)
Because your car’s battery is something you expect to rely on during the first months of your vehicle’s operation, you also expect it to be under warranty.
That’s usually not true for gas-powered vehicles – the use of the battery falls under the category of wear and tear, which is damage that naturally occurs over the life of your vehicle – but electric cars do offer initially good coverage for battery life. That coverage, however, does not, however, last forever.
How Important Is Your Battery?
Your gas-powered car’s battery works closely with your car’s electrical system, and one will not operate without the other. The battery is essentially the heart of your car. A gas-powered battery is rechargeable, as is an electric car battery, and both carry the electric current necessary to start the car, whether through the fuel of a combustion engine or through the electric battery alone, which connects to the engine that provides your vehicle with power.
The battery, working with other parts of the vehicle, provides power for the motor to operate your vehicle’s electrical systems, from the radio to the air conditioner.
An electric battery controls your car through electricity and rotating magnets, which power the rotating motor, not an engine. Both types of cars and types of batteries operate quite differently.
A gas-powered battery controls:
- The starter, powers the engine.
- All of your vehicle’s electrical components, such as interior lighting.
- Your vehicle’s injector system.
- Spark plugs.
- Sensors.
An electric battery controls the following:
- Cell voltage.
- Cell voltage monitoring.
Both are obviously vital to the continued operation of your electric car, especially so on a road trip.
Clues That Your Battery Needs Replacing
Traditional car batteries give off plenty of clues that yours needs replacing, including:
- Your headlights start dimming.
- Your car is more than three years old.
- Your car has been sitting idle for a length of time.
- You notice corrosion on your battery’s terminals.
- When battery-operated functions begin to fail.
Traditional batteries need replacing more often than electric car batteries, which can often last beyond 10 years, although one shouldn’t count on it, they should last at least five with no issues, experts say.
Electric car batteries also give off clues that they need to be replaced, including:
- If your lithium battery is older than 12 to 15 years (according to the United States Department of Energy, which predicts electric batteries should last that long, consider replacing it. Most auto experts, however, recommend replacing your electric battery every eight to 10 years due to battery degradation.
- If your battery has more than 100,000 miles on it – depending on make and model.
- If your battery has the inability to hold a significant charge.
- If you live in a climate that is not regularly between 50 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit – the ideal temps for lithium batteries – you may have to change your battery more often.
Why Should You Consider an Extended Warranty?
While traditional car batteries are rarely covered specifically under a traditional car manufacturer’s warranty, an extended warranty – especially a bumper-to-bumper warranty – from a good extended warranty company, which often covers things differently, will help protect you on the road.
Battery life is not quite as short as that of a butterfly, but it doesn’t last forever. Even the best factory batteries can die within three to five years, and it usually happens when you’re parked in a hotel or restaurant parking lot, ready to go home.
Here is when Advanced Repair Network’s roadside assistance service can be the key to getting you back on the road, and home from vacation or that great new eatery.
A dead battery doesn’t have to mean death to a great evening with 24/7 – and 365 days a year – coverage from
And What About Electric Car Batteries?
Electric car batteries are pricy, usually about $5,000, and here is where an extended warranty – not a smaller, bumper-to-bumper warranty – could be important to cover.
Most car companies offer longer warranties for electric car batteries under their own extended warranty coverage, such as:
- Nisan Leaf – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Chevrolet Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Ford Mustang Mach-E – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Ford F-150 Lightning – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Tesla Model 3 – 8 years/150,000 miles
- Tesla Model 3 Long Range and Performance and Tesla Model Ys – 8 years/120,000 miles
- Tesla Model S and Model X– 8 years/150,000 miles
- Jaguar I-Pace – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Volvo C40 Recharge – 8 years, 100,000 miles
- Toyota 4VXZ – 8 years/100,000 miles
- Hyundai Kona Electric – 10 years/100,000 miles
- Kia EV6 – 10 years/100,000,000 miles
- Kia Niro EV – 10 years/100,000 miles
Still, those years go by quickly, and that’s why Advanced Repair Network can be such an important part of your money-saving arsenal.
In the early days of electric vehicles, some electric vehicle manufacturers – including Tesla, for example – did not include battery degradation in their vehicle warranties, making it all the more important for consumers to purchase vehicle protection plans that worked for them.
Today is no exception. A car is a large investment, and protecting yourself with the right protection plan, especially one that includes a longer electric car battery protection policy – means you could save thousands in auto repairs during the life of your automobile.
A program such as Advanced Repair Network, which helps pick up insurance coverage where auto manufacturers leave off, helps ensure that you’ll be back on the road in no time, in most cases, no matter what’s going on under the hood.