What's included in a battery health report for a used Chinese EV?
Short answer:
A battery health report states the pack's remaining capacity as a percentage of original, taken shortly before export — the single most important number when buying used.
Unlike a combustion engine, an EV's main wear item is the battery pack, so we pull a state-of-health (SoH) reading before listing any used unit:
- What it measures — remaining usable capacity as a percentage of the battery's original rated capacity (e.g. 92% SoH means the pack now holds 92% of its as-new energy).
- How it's read — via the vehicle's onboard diagnostic system, the same data the dashboard range estimate is calculated from.
- What's normal — most well-cared-for packs show single-digit-percent degradation in the first several years; anything showing steep, uneven degradation is flagged and priced accordingly, not hidden.
Ask for the SoH report on any used listing before you commit to a deposit.