What to expect: A slightly cooler period compared to last week in which high temps today won't surpass the 80s. Windy conditions are in store throughout the week.
Read on ... for more details.
This first week of March will bring warm temperatures, plenty of sunshine and some windy conditions.
Coastal communities will wake up to some morning low clouds, even some patchy fog, followed by afternoon sunshine. Temperatures at L.A. County beaches will reach 67 to 72 degrees, but hover around the low 60s for Orange County beaches. Most of the region, including downtown L.A., should see highs in the low to mid 70s.
Valley communities and the Inland Empire will see highs mostly in the upper 70s, and up to 81 degrees in the western San Fernando Valley.
In Coachella Valley, the highs today are expected to reach up to 88 degrees.
Topline:
The United States evacuated diplomats as attacks intensified across the Middle East, with drones striking the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while President Trump signaled the conflict with Iran could turn into an extended war.
Embassies closed: The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia Tuesday urged Americans to avoid the compound after the Saudi Defense Ministry said the diplomatic post had been attacked by two drones. The State Department has ordered evacuations of diplomatic missions in several Middle Eastern countries. This comes after an Iranian attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait on Monday. The embassy said on social media Tuesday that it was closing until further notice.In Jordan, the State Department said Tuesday it had evacuated its large embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman after threats against it.
Americans urged to leave several countries: The State Department named more than a dozen countries and territories in the Middle East where Americans should leave because of the conflict, even as options to leave narrowed with flight cancellations and airport closures. Americans need to "DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks," Mora Namdar, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, said in a post on X.
Read on. . . for the countries and areas included on the State Department's list.
The United States evacuated diplomats as attacks intensified across the Middle East, with drones striking the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while President Trump signaled the conflict with Iran could turn into an extended war.
Israel said it sent ground forces across the border into southern Lebanon and bombed Beirut suburbs as fighting with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah resumed after more than a year.
The U.S. and Israel kept up their attacks in Iran, where the death toll rose Tuesday to 787 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Explosions were heard in Iran's capital of Tehran and other parts of the country.
Trump said Monday that the war could last four to five weeks, but could go longer than that.
In a social media post, Trump said that the U.S. had a "virtually unlimited supply" of munitions. "Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully, using just these supplies," Trump wrote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox it would not lead to an "endless war."
The war has so far killed six U.S. service members, according to the Pentagon, which warns that more casualties are expected.
Ten people in Israel have died since Iran began retaliating with missile attacks there.
Here are more of the key updates NPR is reporting on.
To jump to specific areas of coverage, use the links below:
U.S. Embassies | Americans evacuate | Lebanon | U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran | Strait of Hormuz | Global natural gas
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia Tuesday urged Americans to avoid the compound after the Saudi Defense Ministry said the diplomatic post had been attacked by two drones.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry called it "a flagrant Iranian attack" in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
There were no immediate reports of injuries. The Defense Ministry said the drone strikes caused "limited fire and minor damage" to the U.S. Embassy.
The State Department has ordered evacuations of diplomatic missions in several Middle Eastern countries.
This comes after an Iranian attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait on Monday. The embassy said on social media Tuesday that it was closing until further notice.
In Jordan, the State Department said Tuesday it had evacuated its large embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman after threats against it.
Iran has been striking Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates that are normally considered safe in retaliation to U.S. attacks that started Saturday. Iran has also hit commercial targets after warning that it would attack American interests across the region.
Amazon said Monday that two of its data centers in the UAE and one of its centers in Bahrain were hit by drones, affecting their operations.
— Jane Arraf and Hadeel Al-Shalchi
The State Department urged Americans to leave more than a dozen countries and territories in the Middle East because of the conflict, even as options to leave narrowed with flight cancellations and airport closures.
Americans need to "DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks," Mora Namdar, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, said in a post on X.
The countries and areas included:
— Ayana Archie
The Israeli military said soldiers were "operating in southern Lebanon" as it continues strikes against Hezbollah, including in the Lebanese capital.
Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire in November 2024 but Israel has continued almost daily strikes since then. Iran-backed Hezbollah had refrained from attacks until Sunday, when it launched strikes in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Israeli military said Tuesday it targeted what it called Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"Let me be clear: this is not a ground maneuver into Lebanon. It is a tactical step to create an additional layer of security for the residents of northern Israel," said Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani describing the Israeli troop movements.
Thousands of Lebanese streamed out of Dahya, the suburb where Hezbollah, a political party as well as paramilitary group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and some other Western countries, is based.
They joined what the government says are at least 30,000 Lebanese fleeing Israeli strikes in south Lebanon and in Beirut. Shelters were so over-crowded some families resorted to laying out blankets on sidewalks of the corniche, Beirut's sea-side.
The Lebanese government says 52 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Saturday.
— Jane Arraf
In the Iranian capital, residents heard the sound of explosions overnight. There were no immediate reports of what had been hit.
Israel's military said it struck Iran's intelligence ministry and state broadcaster. The Israeli authorities also said that they are now focusing on targeting Iran's missiles and launchers.
Iranian missile strikes on Israel have significantly decreased. Israel says Iran may be rationing munitions gearing up for a long war.
An official in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity tells NPR Israel thinks it can achieve its war goals in two weeks total. Israeli officials say they want to create the conditions for Iranians to topple their government.
In Iran's southern city of Minab, a mass funeral was held for 165 people — most of them young girls — killed in an attack on a girls school Saturday. Many of the bodies had been buried under rubble.
The U.S. military said it was looking into reports of missiles hitting the school. The Israeli military said it was unaware of its forces operating in the area.
Some in the large crowd attending the funeral chanted "Death to America," "Death to Israel" and "No surrender."
Iran's Red Crescent Society said Tuesday at least 787 people have been killed in attacks on 153 cities across the country.
Ten people have been killed in Israel since the start of the conflict, according to Israeli officials.
— Daniel Estrin and Jane Arraf
Iran continued to threaten ships near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway vital to Gulf oil exports.
"The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Anyone who wants to pass, our devotee heroes in the IRGC navy and the army will set those ships on fire," security official Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, said Monday. "Don't come to this region."
In a sign of the vast repercussions of the war, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told an Iranian envoy that Iran must reopen the waterway.
In addition to the effect of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on oil supplies, about 20% of the world's liquified natural gas, or LNG, is shipped through the Strait. On land, Iranian strikes hit Ras Laffan, the world's largest LNG export plant in Qatar. State-owned QatarEnergy says it has shut down LNG production.
Many countries are somewhat insulated from the disruptions in oil flows because they have oil in strategic reserves. But natural gas is a different story, says Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a global research scholar at the Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. Gas storage levels are particularly low because it's the end of winter.
" This is absolutely massive," Corbeau says. "It's going to impact everybody who is importing LNG."
Oil prices have risen since trading opened Monday, and so have natural gas prices in Asia and Europe. Energy experts say that higher gas prices and reduced LNG flows out of the Persian Gulf is highly profitable for LNG exporters elsewhere, including in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the U.S. The U.S. is the biggest exporter of LNG and is set to open a new LNG terminal in Texas soon.
— Julia Simon
Jane Arraf and Hadeel Al-Shalchi reported from Amman, Jordan; Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv, Israel; Ayana Archie from Washington; Julia Simon from San Francisco.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
As the cost of living continues to pinch Californians, state lawmakers have a new focus: bringing down the cost of housing construction to get more homes built quickly. Their solution, so far, is to industrialize the building process by facilitating prefab, modular and manufactured housing.
The backstory: Earlier this year, a group of California lawmakers held a series of hearings as part of the Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation to understand what barriers stand in the way of scaling up factory-built construction. It comes after lawmakers last year passed a series of bills that streamlined environmental reviews for housing developments and transformed the way housing is built near transit.
Why it matters: A report, published Monday, from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, found factory-built housing, also known as prefab and manufactured housing, could cut costs by up to 20% and slash building timelines in half — a key innovation needed to ramp up construction and meet the state’s goal of building 2.5 million homes by 2030.
Read on... for more about factory built homes.
As the cost of living continues to pinch Californians, state lawmakers have a new focus: bringing down the cost of housing construction to get more homes built quickly.
Their solution, so far, is to industrialize the building process by facilitating prefab, modular and manufactured housing. Earlier this year, a group of California lawmakers held a series of hearings as part of the Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation to understand what barriers stand in the way of scaling up factory-built construction.
It comes after lawmakers last year passed a series of bills that streamlined environmental reviews for housing developments and transformed the way housing is built near transit.
“A key piece of making housing more affordable is bringing down the cost of construction,” Committee Chair and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Berkeley) said in a statement to KQED. “Factory-built housing is not a silver bullet, but it can be part of the solution to our housing crisis.”
A report, published Monday, from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, found factory-built housing, also known as prefab and manufactured housing, could cut costs by up to 20% and slash building timelines in half — a key innovation needed to ramp up construction and meet the state’s goal of building 2.5 million homes by 2030.
But, these projects face big hurdles in securing financing and overcoming a patchwork of regulatory approvals that can vary by jurisdiction. Following the committee’s Construction Innovation hearings, state lawmakers now plan to introduce their own package of bills aiming to streamline the process.
Those efforts will dovetail with legislation at the federal level, where lawmakers are also trying to solve the nation’s growing housing affordability crisis, caused in part by a construction slump. Federal legislators are currently working on two separate bill packages taking aim at red tape and outdated safety standards which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle argue have prevented factories from churning out housing for decades.
And while there has historically been resistance from unions to factory-built housing, there is a growing recognition of the benefits to workers. Jeremy Smith, deputy legislative director for the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, said during a committee hearing that while the trades prefer on-site construction methods, modular-built housing “provides a solution to building — to actually building — more housing for people of all income levels.”
He pointed to Fullstack Modular, a construction company with a factory in Carson, Ca., which employs about 200 unionized workers to construct modular homes. He said working in a factory, as opposed to commuting long hours to job sites, benefits employees.
“Because of the consistent work hours and the factory location within the community, trades workers and more crafts people are able to consider the trades and still accommodate childcare and other life needs,” he said. “Workers who have not secured reliable transportation, for example, can more easily get to the stationary location of the Carson factory, making their transition into the building trades easier.”
Factory-built housing is not necessarily new in California. For years, a number of construction firms have offered modular housing or prefabricated units, which can be manufactured miles away and assembled on site. But many of those firms have failed to scale up and have shuttered their factories.
Michelle Boyd, chief strategy officer for Terner Labs, a nonprofit incubator program connected to the Terner Center, said the construction industry hasn’t changed in decades and neither have the laws or financing systems surrounding it.
“The construction industry has worked the way it’s worked for 100 years,” she said. “And there are many different silos. Every player has their own little piece of the puzzle on how you put a house together or an apartment together.”
But industrialized construction consolidates that system into one factory, and that, in turn, runs up against regulatory and financing norms, which makes it difficult for new types of construction to successfully enter — and stay — in the market.
When it comes to regulations, the Terner Center’s report details inconsistencies between local governments’ building codes as one barrier to be removed. Although the state has adopted a set of standards for housing built in factories, local governments still require certain plan reviews and inspections, which can change a standardized product into a bespoke project for each city.
On the finance side, banks and insurance agencies have funded traditional site-built housing for decades, so they understand the risks involved. But factory-built construction has yet to meet mainstream adoption, which means financial institutions have less data and experience to gauge risk. That makes it harder to access capital needed to get projects off the ground.
Boyd said that because developers sometimes have trouble finding financing, it means deals can fall through, resulting in holes in the factories’ production pipeline. When that happens, she said, “They can’t sustain that because they have to pay the wages, and so they close.”
But she argues, the state could work to assume some of the risk of the transaction and stabilize the pipeline so those holes don’t exist.
“One of the main policy areas that we uncovered is a role potentially for the state in helping hold some of that risk, so we’re not really asking these developers to risk losing a lot of money or having the deal go upside down halfway through,” she said.
Taken together, Boyd said, these proposed reforms, if implemented, could have the potential to jumpstart the industry, bringing down the cost of construction for builders, and hopefully, for homeowners too.
Topline:
L.A. city leaders will discuss Wednesday whether to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of the regional homelessness agency known as LAHSA and assign different oversight.
The context: The L.A. Homeless Services Authority, which is overseen by the city and county, has been under fire for more than a year. L.A. County supervisors voted last spring to pull the county’s funding from LAHSA and shift it to a new county department for homeless services.
A decision to make: At their meeting Wednesday, the City Council’s housing and homelessness committee is scheduled to discuss a range of options. Its chair, Councilmember Nithya Raman, told LAist she’s planning on two meetings to go over the options before the committee decides how to move forward.
‘In crisis’: LAHSA’s interim CEO, Gita O’Neill, said last week that the agency “is in crisis” with “very low” morale following the county funding pullout.
Read on... for more on the options being weight by the L.A. City Council.
L.A. city leaders will discuss on Wednesday whether to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of the regional homelessness agency and assign different oversight.
L.A. County supervisors voted to withdraw funding for the L.A. Homeless Services Authority last April, citing ongoing problems with the agency's oversight of homelessness funds.
Now 10 months later, City Council members are planning to talk about whether to pull the city’s funds from LAHSA — which amount to just under $300 million this fiscal year.
It’s one of the most consequential decisions on homelessness city officials have faced in years. In deciding the future of LAHSA, the City Council will be deciding who will be entrusted with taxpayer funds meant to address the nation’s largest unsheltered homeless population.
On Wednesday, the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee is scheduled to discuss a range of options that include:
The committee also is scheduled to discuss whether to pursue shifting the city’s federal homelessness funding from LAHSA to more direct city control.
The options were first laid out in a staff report to delivered last April, just over a year after it was requested by Councilmember Monica Rodriguez.
At a City Council meeting in January, Rodriguez criticized housing and homelessness committee chair Nithya Raman for not scheduling a committee discussion on the options.
“It's been sitting [for] 280 days, a report in your committee that you won't hear,” Rodriguez said at the January meeting. “So let's stop playing this false notion of the arsonists showing up as the firefighters.”
Asked for a response Monday, Raman’s spokesperson Stella Stahl told LAist the item is on Wednesday's agenda.
In a statement, Raman said she expects to hold two meetings to discuss all the city’s options before the council makes a decision.
Raman and Mayor Karen Bass urged the county not to pull funding from LAHSA last spring, saying the agency was making progress on homelessness.
The supervisors went ahead last April with their decision to withdraw the more than $300 million in annual county funding from the agency.
The vast majority of county funds will be shifted from LAHSA starting July 1.
Raman recently announced she’s running in the June primary against Bass, whom she previously endorsed for re-election.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.
LAHSA was created by the city and county in 1993 to oversee homeless services. It’s governed by a CEO who reports to a commission of 10 members. Half of the members are appointed by the L.A. mayor, and the other half by each of the five county supervisors. Bass also serves on the commission, having appointed herself in fall 2023.
While it’s long faced criticism, it’s been under particularly close scrutiny for more than a year.
An audit and court-ordered review found it failed to properly track its spending and whether services were being provided.
LAHSA also has been facing criticism more recently for months-long delays in paying tens of millions of dollars to reimburse service providers — a problem officials vowed to fix nearly two years ago. Several providers recently told LAist they've had had to dip into reserves or take on debt.
While addressing the commission that oversees the organization on Friday, CEO O’Neill said LAHSA was “in crisis. And I say this not as a criticism to any of our really hardworking staff. They've built what they were asked to build.”
LAHSA’s staff report to “essentially 21 elected bosses, all of whom have different, sometimes conflicting agendas,” O’Neill said. “This creates a structure that is unstable.”
“LAHSA has been structured for decades as the entity that takes the blame,” she added. “Political incentive…has been to point at LAHSA rather than to address structural issues.”
“Morale is very low,” O’Neill said of LAHSA staff.
Topline:
Fifteen years ago, when modern electric vehicles were just hitting the road, no one knew exactly what to expect from their giant, expensive lithium-ion batteries. EV batteries were intended to last longer than those smaller, cheaper batteries. But how much longer?
Early predictions: In 2010, the New York Times wrote that "estimates of [EV] battery packs' lifespan — no one knows for sure — range upward from seven years." The average car on the road is more than 12 years old. And that discrepancy made some would-be EV buyers nervous. But as the fleet of EVs on the road ages, new data pooled from tens of thousands of vehicles is showing those batteries are lasting longer than expected.
Longer lifespan: Recurrent, a research firm that pulls in data from over 30,000 EV drivers, found a rapid decline at the beginning of a battery's life, a long leveling off, and then a more rapid decline at the end. Recurrent's data shows that the initial drop-off is not as severe as some people had worried, with cars from most major brands retaining 95% or more of their expected range after 3 years.
Fifteen years ago, when modern electric vehicles were just hitting the road, no one knew exactly what to expect from their giant, expensive lithium-ion batteries.
As batteries age, they hold less and less energy. Anyone who's ever had a dying smartphone, or had to replace a vehicle's 12-volt starter battery, knows this painfully well.
EV batteries were intended to last longer than those smaller, cheaper batteries. But how much longer?
The predictions were not soothing. In 2010, the New York Times wrote that "estimates of [EV] battery packs' lifespan — no one knows for sure — range upward from seven years." The average car on the road is more than 12 years old. And that discrepancy made some would-be EV buyers nervous.
Batteries come with warranties, but they don't last as long as the car. If a high-voltage battery chokes out midway through a car's life, it needs replacing — at a price tag that can run in the ballpark of $5,000 to $20,000.
But there's good news.
As the fleet of EVs on the road ages, new data pooled from tens of thousands of vehicles is showing those batteries are lasting longer than expected.
Lithium-ion batteries undergo two kinds of aging. First, there's calendar aging: They degrade as time goes on, holding less juice, even if they just sit in storage.
Then there's cyclical aging, which is how much a battery degrades based on its use — being charged and discharged, over and over again.
That means there's no way to dodge degradation. Whether you use a vehicle a lot or a little, eventually, the battery will hold less energy.
But the trajectory of aging isn't a straight line. Recurrent, a research firm that pulls in data from over 30,000 EV drivers, describes it as an "S curve." There's a rapid decline at the beginning, a long leveling off, and then a more rapid decline at the end.
"It's very much like breaking in a pair of shoes," says Liz Najman, the director of market insights at Recurrent. The shoes start out stiff, but quickly get a little more give. "And then your shoes just last you," she says, until at some point, "It's all over, it's a rapid decline."
And when it comes to EV batteries, two things are becoming clear. The initial drop-off is not as severe as some people had worried. And the sharp end-of-life decline is taking a long, long time to materialize.
Adam George is a vehicle services director at Cox Automotive, which runs used car auctions around the country. In recent years, the number of used EVs for sale has increased enormously — reflecting the sharp rise in production a few years ago.
That's given Cox Automotive a growing pool of used EVs to evaluate before they're re-sold.
"We were expecting battery health to be experiencing mass degradation over the first one to three years of owning a vehicle," George says. "What we have seen, though, is that these 2, 3, 4-year-old off-lease cars that are coming back have battery health scores well upwards of 95%."
Recurrent's data also shows that cars from most major brands retain 95% or more of their expected range after 3 years, thanks in part to software and battery management systems that are designed to correct for the battery's early degradation, and give drivers consistent range.
So the initial drop-off in that S curve is in the range of 5% or so, give or take. After that? Well, Cox Automotive has tested nearly 80,000 EVs, and found an average battery health of 92%.
That data set is naturally skewed toward younger vehicles, because the vast majority of EVs on the road today are fairly new. There were only a million EVs sold between 2010 and 2018, and now there are more than a million sold each year.
So what about the oldest EVs, specifically?
Recurrent's data can help answer this question. Najman, a data scientist, notes a few caveats: It's a fairly small dataset, just because there weren't many EVs built more than a decade ago. And some of the oldest EVs use technology that can't connect to Recurrent's opt-in network.
But based on their community, among EVs that are 10 years old or older, only 8.5% have ever had a battery replacement. More than 90% of them are still on their original battery.
"EV batteries are holding up phenomenally well," Najman says.
Recurrent has also looked at EVs of any age that have more than 150,000 miles on them, which provides a closer look at the effects of that cyclical aging. There, too, the batteries outperformed expectations.
"Cars with 150,000 miles or more, and that have not had battery replacements, are getting at least 83% of their original range," Najman says.
Now, there is one common reason why EV batteries will be replaced very early on: a defect. There have been multiple large-scale battery recalls, and any individual battery might have a flaw that requires replacement. But because all new EVs come with warranties, that kind of replacement isn't a financial blow to owners.
"That would be something that would be synonymous with, like, your engine or a transmission going bad," says Adam George, of Cox Automotive. "That's what warranties are for."
EV battery warranties typically cover at least 8 years and 100,000 miles, and automakers will replace the battery in the case of catastrophic failure, or a reduction in capacity (usually to 70% of the original or less).
What do all these stats look like in real life? Consider Norman Hajjar's Model S.
Hajjar was an early adopter of electric vehicles. He kind of had to be: In 2013 he became an executive at the electric vehicle drivers' app Plugshare.
His 2012 Model S is one of the first that Tesla ever built. When he got it, he was well aware of the question mark about battery lifespan. "There was really no way of knowing what the future held for it because there was zero track record," Hajjar says.
In his case, the future held a battery defect: a loud noise followed by his car coming to an abrupt stop. He recalls Tesla replacing the battery — free of charge and under warranty — in 2014.
Since then, he's spent 12 years on that second battery. He's put around 200,000 miles on the car overall. And it's driving great, thank you very much.
"This vehicle still is a monster," Hajjar says, affectionately. "It is extremely fast, quick off the line."
The vehicle was originally rated to have 265 miles of range. Now it has about 220. Do the math, and it's at 83% of its original capacity. "The amount of degradation is pretty minor," Hajjar says.
Hajjar has moved on to a newer vehicle for his daily driver, mostly to enjoy higher-tech features. (His newer Model Y has Tesla's advanced driver-assistance software.) His son uses the Model S these days for his commute to college. "It's just sort of a backup vehicle now," Hajjar says. But he plans to hang on to it. He's sentimental about it, he says.
The engineers who developed modern EVs knew that prolonging battery life would be crucial. They designed systems to actively manage temperatures to improve battery lifespan, and software to constantly check battery health. Years have shown those efforts paid off.
But there's another reason EV batteries have out-performed expectations. It turns out that testing batteries is harder on them than the real world. Their lifespan was underestimated.
Simona Onori's lab at Stanford University has done research into the longevity of lithium-ion batteries, including a 2024 paper in Nature Energy showing that traditional methods for testing battery life are very stressful, and don't match the way batteries are actually used.
In most lab tests, researchers repeatedly cycle them from a very high state of charge to a very low one.
Real-world driving is gentler, with stops and starts — each start draws a bit of the battery's energy down, while each stop gives it a little time to recharge. A driver would never slam the accelerator to the floor and keep it there until the battery is dead.
"We accelerate, we decelerate," Onori says. "The battery will be charged, and discharged, some rest if you're at a traffic light."
Her lab's findings suggest that the traditional tests for battery life were unrealistically challenging, and Onori says ongoing work with real-world data is now confirming that. When they're actually driven, she says, EV batteries "age gracefully. Very gracefully."
Just like humans, she notes: "When we live a life with less stress, we live longer."
So how long do EV batteries last? It's still too soon to put a precise number on it, because — as a group — the cars already on the road haven't yet reached the end of the S-curve, the point when they will start to show massive performance declines. In other words, they're not dead yet.
Meanwhile, battery technology keeps improving. The oldest EVs, like Hajjar's Model S, may not be the best indicator of how long newer EVs will last. Software systems to manage batteries have gotten more sophisticated. A lot of new EVs use a different battery chemistry — lithium iron phosphate or LFP — which lasts even longer than other lithium-ion batteries.
As Stephanie Valdez-Streaty, who follows EV trends for Cox Automotive, puts it: "These batteries are built to outlast the cars."
And there's one more wrinkle when it comes to figuring out the end of life for a normally-aging EV battery. They don't die abruptly, like an old engine cutting out. It's more that their range shrinks; they can only hold enough energy for shorter and shorter trips. Instead of shelling out for an expensive battery replacement, some EV owners might just put up with that limitation.
Thomas McVeigh, of Ontario, Canada, drives a 2014 BMW i3. That vehicle didn't have an impressive range even when it was new, and now it can only manage about 55 miles on a single charge in the winter. But it still looks great. It's pleasant to drive. It saves him on gas. Maintenance is wildly cheap for a 12-year-old vehicle, and especially for a BMW; his only real cost is new tires.
He's fine with its diminished range. And he's not inclined to put what he estimates would be a $6,000 battery into an aging car. Instead, maybe he'll pass it on to his kid. "Teenagers generally aren't going for long drives," he says.
Or maybe he'll keep it for himself, after all. "I mean," he says, "I love that car."
Copyright 2026 NPR
