[r00fus]

But a lifetime of 3y doesn't jive with why my 7 year old vehicle is mostly fully functional. Even with 10% over-provisioning (amazingly expensive 7y ago), that's only a 15% reduction in 7 years.

The statement "The life of the commonly used chemistries is only around 3 years" is completely misleading and probably inaccurate.

[freedomben]

I don't know about the 3 years number, but generally speaking battery lives are estimates/averages based on statistics. If you have a battery that was well cared for it will outperform the average. Also sometimes it's just dumb luck. One aberration isn't nearly enough data to throw out the entire premise