I’m the type of person who has to make a spreadsheet for big decisions, but now I have a website, I’m gonna put it here. Buying an EV is a $50k decision, and as a techy person, I need to know all the details. Battery chemistry is something of interest in 2026, which have some vast ramifications for how you manage the car and the resale value in 5-10 years. Then, is your brand going to exist in 5-10 years when you need a warrantee claim or spare parts in the future?
Before we get into the techy business, who cares about range? Most people fret over a minimum 500 km range, when they barely drive 50 km on their longest weekly drive. The future is short range, neighbourhood electric cars and hiring/borrowing long range cars when there are needed once per year. So I’m not going to really talk to range, because 99% of your journeys are covered by all EVs and you should be encouraged to buy a sensible 300 to 400 km model.
Battery Chemistry
The battery is probably the most important aspect of the car, as you well know. But some sales staff don’t know the difference between iron and ion, so here’s the low-down. NMC was the original, legacy battery adopted in Europe by most manufacturers, whereas LFP is newer and most Asian brands have been able to leap-frog the west. In 2026, the divide is generalised as such, with European brands slowly adopting LFP.
| Battery Technology | NMC | LFP |
|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (Lithium-Ion, NMC) | Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo, LFP) |
| Charging | Limited to 80% full only | Charge to 100% |
| Discharging | 50% of the battery | 80-90% of the battery |
| Degredation | 1,500 to 2,500 cycles before capacity is reduced to 80% | 2,000 to 5,000 cycles before capacity is reduced to 80% |
| Physical Size | Smaller and lighter (higher energy density) which yeilds greater range | Larger and heavier (lower energy density) which yeilds lower range |
| Low Temperature | Perfect | Slight efficiency losses |
| Safety | More prone to overheating in extreme conditions | Very safe, no thermal runaway |
| Cost | More expensive, rarer metals required | Cheaper, more abundant elements |
So, market-first NMC cars were good and have suffered being on the bleeding edge as early adopters are going to be aged out very quickly. It’s likely that the NMC chemistry cars will lose resale value very quickly when the market becomes dominated by newer LFP models.
Platform
But what is your car, really? The platform is the fundamental design which includes the chassis, aerodynamics and layout. If the brand only sells EVs, you know the platform is designed with vastly superior interior space, aerodynamics, and range compared to vehicles which were originally fossil fuel powered. For example, the Volvo EX40 is a battery retrofitted into the Volvo XC40.
What you miss when you have a retrofitted EV is the opportunity for the battery and its weight to be distributed properly. It then misses all the advancements in aerodynamics, suspension and space. So the advice is to pick a car (or at least a brand) which is built as a dedicated EV first and not an afterthought.
Will your brand exist in the future?
Who is who in the zoo? All the brands are a complex web of acquisitions and marketing. So who are the puppet masters?
Geely
The Chinese brand has many subsidiary businesses. Their EVs are Geely and Zeekr, with many joint ventures with Volvo, Polestar, Proton, Smart and Lotus.
Zeekr being Geely’s premium offering, and Polestar being Volvo’s premium EV sister brand.
Build Your Dreams
BYD is itself its own brand. They’re big in batteries with their own vertically integrated battery brand, FinDreams Battery and you can be quite sure that they’re sticking around.
The new Kia cars such as the EV5 are using the BYD Blade LFP batteries.
Hyundai
Hyundai, Kia, Genesis
Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Cupra
CATL
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) make a lot of batteries. This is probably good.
LG and Ultium Cells
LG Energy Solution and General Motors have their brands and JV too.
Looking at the specific brands of batteries is good, and looking at who owns the actual car manufacturing is a deep rabbit hole of shell and umbrella companies. In the volatile market which is mergers and acquisitions, the existence of your brand is going to be important when you need spare parts and warrantee.
What’s left?
With all this considered, what cars are available to you? A very good resource, and a lot of the heavy lifting has been done by the EV Database. I can say quite confidently at the time of writing, this is all you want to look at in 2026.
- BYD – all models except the Atto 2
- Geely – EX5
- Kia – EV5 only
- Mazda – 6e GT and CX-6e
- MG – 4 and S5
- Suzuki – e Vitara
- Zeekr – 7 and X
If you can compromise on a pure-EV platform, you can open the doors to the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 electric and if you can compromise on your values, the Musk cars also meet the criteria.
What else should you care about?
Some people care about the fuel economy equivalent of EVs. That is, kWh/km which is essentially the same as L/100km, where a lower number is better. To equate these to something meaningful, we look to $/km by using c/kWh for power to charge and $/L for petrol or diesel. Some nerds will tell you that 15 kWh/km is so much better than 20 or 25, but in the scheme of things, who cares? The cost per km is virtually free compared to petrol. It is true that the weight and aerodynamics of your car will affect the overall efficiency, but rest easy that your choice will always be better than petrol or diesel.
Petrol Car
| Cost per 10,000 km | Cheap Fuel ($1.75/L) | Expensive Fuel ($2.20/L) |
|---|---|---|
| Efficient (7.5 L/100km) | $1,313 | $1,650 |
| Inefficient Car (12 L/100km) | $2,100 | $2,640 |
EV
| Cost per 10,000 km | Cheap Power (30c/kWh) | Expensive Power (60c/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| Efficient (12.5 kWh/km) | $375 | $750 |
| Inefficient Car (20 kWh/km) | $600 | $1,200 |
So, even if you’re always filling your battery with the most expensive power (usually public charging stations) with the least efficient EV, it’s still cheaper to run that the most efficient petrol car with the cheapest fuel. With cheap power at home or free solar, you don’t have to worry too much about running costs.
So what am I going to buy?
I don’t really know and I don’t love my options. With such limited options, I’ll compromise on something and probably buy second hand. If it is LFP, the budget goes up $10k. If it is a retrofit EV, the budget goes down $5k. Something second hand is always the most environmentally sound decision and cheaper.
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