Whether it’s child labor in cobalt mining (shhh — cobalt is used in almost all electronic devices, but don’t tell anyone), range anxiety, or the collapse of the power grid if all electric cars charge at the same time, the internet is inundated with false statements and half-truths about electric cars and their batteries. As soon as one topic is refuted with facts or made obsolete by longer ranges and better charging networks, the next rumor is spread. One of these myths is that used electric cars will be nearly impossible to sell because the batteries age quickly and need to be replaced after a few years at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

That is a lie, those saying it know it’s a lie, but they say it anyway because Americans are so gullible these days they believe anything they see on the internet. Tim Woodward, the managing director of Prelude Ventures, which has invested in a grid-scale battery storage company that uses second-life EV batteries, says, “I don’t think anyone has [a large volume of second-life batteries] sitting there, ready to be deployed. Batteries are lasting longer in the field than anticipated. It’s not that common that you’re seeing batteries pulled out of even the earliest Teslas.”