Every three to five years, it’s advised to make an appointment with a service technician for battery maintenance. And to ensure that your battery is operating at the proper level, you should periodically get it tested for any voltage drop. For clarity, unless you have a high-performance battery, car batteries typically carry between 12 and 13 volts. So a new battery may be required if the voltage is more than 13, which indicates that the battery may be defective.