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The Green Tax: Electric Vehicle Owners Shocked by Battery Replacements Costing $20,000+

PatMiles

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Minuteman
Feb 25, 2017
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Canadian Electric vehicle (EV) owners have been shocked to find out that battery replacements for their cars, especially older models, tops $20,000. One EV owner shared his experience, saying: “At the dealership, he looked it up online and said you’re not going to like this,” before delivering a bill of $15,000 plus labor and taxes.


“I don’t understand why they make the battery so expensive when you have to change it,” Phyllis Lau, who owns a 2018 KIA Soul all-electric vehicle, told CTV News Toronto.


Lau’s electric SUV came with a warranty for the battery that covers 160,000 kilometers (99,419 miles), or eight years, whichever comes first. This year, her EV clocked in more than 170,000 kilometers, meaning the warranty no longer covers the battery.


When the battery failed, Lau took the vehicle to her local dealership, where she was told a battery replacement, after labor and taxes, would come to $23,000. KIA reportedly agreed to foot half the bill, even though the EV was outside the warranty period.


“They won’t fully cover the cost,” Lau said. “They say the best they can do is half and half.”


Ken Edwardson, another Canadian EV owner, purchased a used 2011 Lincoln MKZ hybrid four years ago, and was shocked to learn that replacing the battery, also after labor and taxes, comes to about $20,000.

“At the dealership, he looked it up online and said you’re not going to like this,” Edwardson told CTV News Toronto. “It was about $15,000 for the battery plus labor and taxes.”

The electric vehicle owner added that he doesn’t feel it’s worth it to invest $20,000 in a car that is now over ten years old. “I just wasn’t expecting that kind of price to replace the battery,” he said.

WHAT ROCK HAVE THESE MORONS BEEN LIVING UNDER?
 
Kia owner lol, 10,000 miles a year is nothing a non turbo, non GDI shouldn’t need any repairs, just minor stuff and fluid changes. Buy a non current Honda, Toyota and even the domestics made simple and reliable vehicles at one time.

What do people think happens with batteries, anyone own 10 year old cordless power tools, phones, laptops…….

My beater is a 2014 civic dx no AC manual no options. 291,000 miles original, clutch, rear breaks, starter, alternator, water pump, coil packs. Only repairs have been an oil pressure sensor and a trunk/fuel door cable, one set of front breaks and one serpentine belt.

Could use some suspension refreshing
 
It’s a tax on all of us, you think these fucks need taxpayer funded credit or rebates to buy these pieces of shit. That’s just one of the things taking money out of your pocket in this whole EV scam.
 
It’s a tax on all of us, you think these fucks need taxpayer funded credit or rebates to buy these pieces of shit. That’s just one of the things taking money out of your pocket in this whole EV scam.
No shit, but I don't see any gov programs to fix or replace these burning piles when the lights grow dim. Damn, maybe that's next....free batteries.....
 
Kia owner lol, 10,000 miles a year is nothing a non turbo, non GDI shouldn’t need any repairs, just minor stuff and fluid changes. Buy a non current Honda, Toyota and even the domestics made simple and reliable vehicles at one time.

What do people think happens with batteries, anyone own 10 year old cordless power tools, phones, laptops…….

My beater is a 2014 civic dx no AC manual no options. 291,000 miles original, clutch, rear breaks, starter, alternator, water pump, coil packs. Only repairs have been an oil pressure sensor and a trunk/fuel door cable, one set of front breaks and one serpentine belt.

Could use some suspension refreshing
I got a 90 with 408k! Just recently with the last year replaced the original starter and alternator
 
I'm surprised it took this long for this issue to surface. This was my very first concern when they started pushing electric vehicles (think Prius), but I worked on electric lift trucks many years back and knew what large batteries cost back then. Operating costs are lower during operation but you pay a premium up front and you pay again when the batteries need to be replaced.

Don't get me wrong I love electric power and if you need it, like lift trucks running indoors it is hard to beat. But there is a cost associated with it.

But they will recycle those batteries and that makes it green again....right?
 
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Being an idiot should be painful. I’m loving watching the green energy scam implode.

I bet eBay has a Chinese replacement battery for $13.00 and free shipping, lol.
But being Chinese it will only last a week...if that.

Have it towed to the states for $1000 and get a new battery for $3000. Tell Justin to go shove the old battery up his ass..
 
See also "what every German car and diesel
pickup truck owner already knows".
 

$1250.00 for refurbished units

you can do it yourself in 15 minutes, not sure about KIa’s

$1250 is for a Prius. A Prius is not an electric vehicle, it’s a hybrid. It has a gas engine. The battery is much smaller, and, I think, a different technology. A battery replacement for a total electric vehicle, a Tesla, will run $20,000 to $35,000.
 
When they said EV's were "green" I'm not sure people understood what they meant......

tma.gif
 
That prices in that article are in Loonies, so that $20k CAD is like 300 bucks in real money.

And batteries hate cold, why in the fuck would a Canadian buy an EV? That's even dumber than going diesel in the frigid north.


Modern diesels have no issues in the cold. Well, provided you run the correct fuel. Just have to make sure you're buying a blended or straight #1.

Biggest thing I notice is the glow plug light stays on for 10 seconds instead of 1.
 
Don't get me wrong I love electric power and if you need it, like lift trucks running indoors it is hard to beat. But there is a cost associated with it.

But they will recycle those batteries and that makes it green again....right?
Don't forget, they aren't really electric. They're just inefficient nuclear, coal or natural gas powered cars. You can only change energy from one form to another, with loss to heat in every step.

Here's how our electricity is generated in Illinois:

Screenshot_20221021-063457_QuickPic.jpg
 
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Electric cars...not bad, just don't get them wet. Saw a news story last night on electric vehicles that were exposed to salt water during the last hurricane. Turns out they are spontaneously combusting...literally ticking bombs. They interviewed some tow truck drivers that said they won't tow them...complete with a video of a burning EV sitting on a tow truck.
 
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High consumer replacement costs are nothing more than a way to ensure EV cars become disposable on the consumer level, then the manufacturer can replace the battery on traded in vehicles for far less than a customer can and sell them at further profit.

Prove me wrong.
My bet is that "anti-theft" technology gets added to battery packs to prevent any kind of secondary market from springing up as well. You know, to protect the consumer...
 
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$1250 is for a Prius. A Prius is not an electric vehicle, it’s a hybrid. It has a gas engine. The battery is much smaller, and, I think, a different technology. A battery replacement for a total electric vehicle, a Tesla, will run $20,000 to $35,000.
Yeah but don't tesla's have a 1000,000 mile warranty on the battery or something? I know next to nothing about EV so all my info comes from a client who just loved em.
 
From the little I've read a number of the related parts can't be easily repaired so most EVs after a medium-light fender bender need to be junked. All the 2nd and 3rd order effects no one asked about.
 
Yeah but don't tesla's have a 1000,000 mile warranty on the battery or something? I know next to nothing about EV so all my info comes from a client who just loved em.

No they don't yet.

Tesla teases their "million mile battery" as maybe coming in the future, but I seriously doubt it will actually have a warranty for that long.
Depending on the model you get, your Tesla would come with a maximum of 150,000 mile warranty on the battery and drive train (which allows for a maximum degradation to 70% usable battery capacity). They have an optional 25,000 mile extension, but it's unclear if that actually covers the main battery.

My suggestion would be to plan to trade in the Tesla before the end of the warranty period.

Tesla is cool and all but they do really poorly on supporting older stuff (such as even just 10 years old) as compared to legacy auto makers that often provide parts availability for longer timeframes.

In any EV (just like any laptop or cell phone or anything with batteries these days), the battery is a consumable item that WILL eventually degrade over time to a point of not being able to perform up to your needs (future technology may change this, and the exact consumable rate is subject to lots of use factors).
I would suggest that EV ownership is best suited for folks that buy a vehicle, possibly buy an extended factory warranty and then trade in the vehicle before the end of the extended warranty. If you want to keep a vehicle for a really long time, get a standard fuel powered vehicle. If you are good with changing out your vehicle every 150,000 miles and 8 to 10 years, then an EV or a plug in hybrid might work very well for you.
 
Over the past few years, the electric vehicle sector has been growing like a weed, frequently exceeding growth estimates. For instance, just two years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that the EV industry would reach between 7% and 12% of global auto sales by 2030. Well, the industry crossed that milestone last year, with one out of ten vehicles sold being electric for the first time ever. Indeed, 7.8 million electric vehicles were sold globally in 2022, a 68% increase from 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported. The IEA has been forced to revise that estimate to one in three new vehicles sold in 2030 being electric.

 
[sarc] I'm pretty sure this EV Fad will pass soon and people will give up and go back to driving "real cars" in a couple more years.[/sarc]

Seriously the next generations of batteries here in 2 to 5 years will be much lighter, charge much faster/hold much more energy, and be much cheaper to replace/not need replacing because they will not degrade like current batteries do. This very same thing happened in the late 1990's with TV's and Displays - the new stuff literally blew the doors off the old stuff so fixing any Display was discouraged - parts were unavailable or if they were available they cost more than a replacement unit. Literally, it made no sense to fix grandmas CRT television. Even the CRT 3 tube projectors that were $4K+ in 1980's dollars could be replaced with better shit for a fraction of the cost of repairing.

I ran a consumer electronics repair center for over 20 years. Literally over the period of 3 years the major manufacturers and eliminated the possibility of us fixing their products because the newer ones ran circles around technology even 5 years old - look at what has happened with cell phones!

The very same thing is happening with EV's and chargers, batteries and associated technologies. It's just getting warmed up.

VooDoo
 
Batteries
Have
Always
Been
A
Consumable

Sincerely,
Your friendly, neighborhood, not as dumb as he looks, redneck.

Your welcome.

Normal "consumers" can't understand and marketing folks don't want to let folks know basic realities and physics.
Just like tyres or Solid State Drives all batteries have a lifespan which varies based on how they are built and how they are used.

If anyone actually wants to see the data:



That's a real world spreadsheet of battery degradation with time / use.
 
[sarc] I'm pretty sure this EV Fad will pass soon and people will give up and go back to driving "real cars" in a couple more years.[/sarc]

Seriously the next generations of batteries here in 2 to 5 years will be much lighter, charge much faster/hold much more energy, and be much cheaper to replace/not need replacing because they will not degrade like current batteries do. This very same thing happened in the late 1990's with TV's and Displays - the new stuff literally blew the doors off the old stuff so fixing any Display was discouraged - parts were unavailable or if they were available they cost more than a replacement unit. Literally, it made no sense to fix grandmas CRT television. Even the CRT 3 tube projectors that were $4K+ in 1980's dollars could be replaced with better shit for a fraction of the cost of repairing.

I ran a consumer electronics repair center for over 20 years. Literally over the period of 3 years the major manufacturers and eliminated the possibility of us fixing their products because the newer ones ran circles around technology even 5 years old - look at what has happened with cell phones!

The very same thing is happening with EV's and chargers, batteries and associated technologies. It's just getting warmed up.

VooDoo
 
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Normal "consumers" can't understand and marketing folks don't want to let folks know basic realities and physics.
Just like tyres or Solid State Drives all batteries have a lifespan which varies based on how they are built and how they are used.

If anyone actually wants to see the data:



That's a real world spreadsheet of battery degradation with time / use.


Any way you read that chart, you can figure buying a brand new electric vehicle every ten years. No matter how little you drive it.
 
Any way you read that chart, you can figure buying a brand new electric vehicle every ten years. No matter how little you drive it.

Probably best to plan on every 10 years / 150k to 200k miles.
Then again I think EVs are best suited anyways to folks that regularly upgrade their vehicles.

That being said if you ignore the cool marketing blurbs you can extend the life a real lot.

Slow AC charge at home, will extend the life of the battery a lot.
Don't do DC rapid charging unless you are on a trip that wears the battery out fast.
Don't drive like a maniac, keep the energy draw to reasonable peak levels.

What I see coming in however is essentially the wet dream of the car makers.
Currently you buy the car and it's yours and that's done.

Before long many brands will offer your battery as a subscription service, where you buy the car and then rent the battery, so you never have to worry about the battery going bad, BUT it means now you are always paying the company money each month to be able to use your car, even long after you have paid it off...

NIO the Chinese company has 7 minute battery swap options (if a station is near you) which fixes a lot of problems with charging times on trips or worrying about the battery going bad (you can also AC and DC charge as normal) BUT as listed above, that means they get you to have a monthly "subscription" fee for as long as you want to own the car, if you want to stay with that option.
 
Electric cars are a solution to a problem, that does not exist.
Some of the first cars ever built were electric.
This is nothing new.
Electric is a false economy. It can't survive without socialists propping it up.
It
Is
A
Control
Mechanism
 
I remember when the whole consumer electronics market became throw away over a period of 3-5 years. Nobody wanted that either but it happened anyway. I'm not sure we can develop the infrastructure to get rid of fossil fuel vehicles by 2035 but if we had started in the 1970's we'd be there by now. Instead we got fabulously rich oil people.

VooDoo