Battery warranty — what the guarantee actually guarantees

Two promises hide under one name. Failure cover treats the pack like any component: if it stops working, it is repaired or replaced. Capacity cover is the interesting one, because a battery that has aged normally has not failed — it has done exactly what batteries do — and only a stated threshold turns that into a claim.

Why it matters when buying

Read four things rather than the headline period. The threshold below which capacity loss becomes a claim. Whether the remedy is replacement or repair to the threshold, which is a much weaker promise. How state of health is measured and whose reading counts. And whether the cover transfers to a second owner, since a warranty that dies with the first sale removes most of the support under a used car’s value.

Then read the exclusions, which is where the real variation lives. Frequent fast charging, grid export, long storage at high charge, and servicing outside the authorised network all appear as grounds for refusal in some contracts and not in others.

Finally, the warranty is honoured by a legal entity in your country, normally the importer. A promise from a manufacturer with no European entity, on a car with no European approval, is a promise with no address.

Related: SOH · degradation · official importer