A new Wall Street Journal report spoke with industry analysts and owners, revealing that EV batteries aren't the financial burdens some thought they'd be after hundreds of thousands of miles. One of the leading reasons many American buyers shy away from EVs is their battery degradation - losing range even though the battery is fully charged. Buyers think those Tesla batteries will be like the ones in their smartphones, getting worse day after day until the vehicle carries a charging cable around like an umbilical cord, but that isn't the case.Acura ZDX at Tesla Supercharger using Acura-approved NACS to CCS adapterAcura"They are proving themselves to be exceptionally reliable," said the owner of a U.K.-based used-car sales company that specializes in EVs. His five-year-old Tesla Model 3 has 247,000 miles on the odometer and just did a 260-mile road trip without needing to charge once. After five years, the average EV buyer will still have 95% of their car's original range to deploy, found a study by Recurrent, a data-science company that provides a battery-monitoring tool for EVs. However, despite this, "There still is a lot of trepidation amongst buyers," said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, a car-shopping website.The secret is the cooling technology pioneered for EV batteries in the late 2010s. Without it, batteries did wear down like your smartphone, leading to costly five-figure replacement bills that scared off gasoline car owners looking to switch. The rate of charge can still harm a battery's ability to retain its range. Frequently charging it to full capacity or letting it sit at zero, as well as repeated high-voltage fast-charge sessions, can reduce range fractionally.TeslaIn the US, EV sales aren't just slow due to a reputation problem, despite the fact that they're significantly cheaper to maintain than gas cars. US regulations have repealed existing EV incentives, which were previously driving consumers towards both fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. This may or may not last, but while the US waits, adoption globally has already risen to 15%.This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jul 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.