The evidence behind Radix.
Independent research on why electric vehicle data needs independent verification. Battery health is where the gap is best documented, so most of these sources look at batteries. Each link opens the original source.
Reported data is not independently verified.
Vehicles report their own condition. These sources show how far that reading can be trusted, and who checks it.
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Battery health reporting fails independent validation across manufacturers (external site)
Park, Kim, Geum, Lee, Son and Han. arXiv, March 2026. Preprint, not yet peer reviewed
Across a large fleet from several manufacturers, the battery health that vehicles reported tracked independent measurements poorly, and many vehicles reported none at all. Real capacity also differed widely between vehicles of the same model.
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Experimental Application of the Global Technical Regulation on In-Vehicle Battery Durability (external site)
Patrone and Paffumi, European Commission Joint Research Centre. Batteries, 2023. Peer reviewed
Under the UN rule on battery durability, on-board battery monitors are checked statistically across a vehicle family, not vehicle by vehicle. In the authors' worked example, a reading several points above the measured value would still pass.
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EU Batteries Regulation (external site)
Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 14. European Parliament and Council, 2023. Law
Gives the buyer of an electric vehicle battery, and third parties acting for them, read-only access to the battery health data in the vehicle's battery management system, including for evaluating residual value. That data comes from the manufacturer's own system.
No two vehicles age the same way.
Averages describe a model. Lenders, insurers and fleet operators carry individual vehicles.
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How long do electric car batteries last? The updated guide to real-world EV battery health (external site)
Geotab, April 2026. Industry study of fleet data
Across a large mixed fleet, charging behaviour was the biggest single factor in how quickly batteries aged, with climate and daily use also playing a part. Similar vehicles used differently aged at clearly different rates.
Valuation has no common standard.
Without an agreed method, the same vehicle can be valued in different ways.
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Good news for used electric vehicles: the batteries remain efficient after several years (external site)
Arval, February 2025. Industry analysis by a vehicle leasing company
A European leasing company notes that there is no official standard method for calculating battery health, and relies on independent certification to support the residual value of the vehicles it resells.
Insurers need data they can rely on.
When damage cannot be assessed, a repairable vehicle can be written off.
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Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car (external site)
Reuters, March 2023. News report
A large insurer describes writing off vehicles whose battery cells were likely undamaged, because without diagnostic data the damage could not be assessed.
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Thatcham Research's Electric Vehicle Blueprint could prevent growing numbers of unnecessary write-offs (external site)
Thatcham Research, March 2026. Industry research for insurers
Sets out what insurers and repairers need to avoid unnecessary write-offs, including battery assessment methods and diagnostics available to every stakeholder rather than only through proprietary tools.
In South Africa.
Local research on electric fleets points to the same missing input.
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Electric Minibus Taxis in Cape Town: Energy Demand, Emissions, and Costs (external site)
Sello, Knipe, Marais, Abdelgadir, Venter and Booysen. Sustainability, February 2026. Peer reviewed
A cost of ownership study for electric minibus taxis. It leaves out battery degradation and replacement, acknowledges they could change the economics significantly, and calls for them to be included as real-world data becomes available.
Listing a source does not imply any relationship with its authors or publishers.
Back your next EV decision with evidence.
We're developing Radix for the decisions made about electric vehicles: finance, insurance, warranty and resale.
For organisations exploring a pilot, integration or strategic partnership.