Posted on 12/09/2023 6:07:45 AM PST by lowbridge
An Arizona car owner says he was shocked when he heard how much it would cost to replace a battery in his hybrid vehicle.
Lucas Turner told KPHO that he recently took his 2014 Infiniti hybrid to a dealership for a check engine light.
He said he knew something was wrong but wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.
“They told me that I need a new hybrid battery and it’s going to cost $18,000 for the battery and another $2,000 to have it installed,” Turner said.
The hybrid car owner said his vehicle has less than 70,000 miles on it and the entire car was purchased for $16,000.
“My jaw dropped with them wanting $20,000 just for a battery,” he said. “It makes no sense in my mind.”
According to Nerdwallet, the cost to replace a hybrid battery typically ranges between $1,000 and $8,000, depending on the make and model of the vehicle.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that [Turner] could find a less expensive battery from another source,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst for iSeeCars.
Electric and hybrid vehicle batteries are warrantied for eight years or 100,000 miles.
According to Brauer, the batteries regularly last much longer.
“It’s not uncommon for these batteries to last 15-plus years and more than 150,000 miles,” Brauer said.
-snip
Turner’s car technically still runs, but he doesn’t know how much longer it will last without the costly repair.
“So, $20,000 or a pile of scrap metal in my driveway,” he said.
Turner said Infiniti has since offered him a 50% discount on the battery replacement while he is still deciding his next move.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxcarolina.com ...
Let us know when you find an EV battery replacement for $300.
Whether a trike, bike, or car, it's PEDAL TO THE METAL!
the piece of tape works unless you need to pass a yearly emissions test.
Some friends have an older Prius and are on their second battery replacement. The first was about $5,000 with a battery from eBay and doing the work themselves. The second battery was about $7,000 replaced by the local Toyota dealer. Their Prius is more than 10 years old. I can’t see the sense of replacing a battery in a high mileage hybrid or EV at that cost and buying a used hybrid or EV is just waiting for a huge expense that exceeds the value of the vehicle. EVs in particular could be seen as throw away.
Looks like the second year of production for Q50, QX60 and Nissan Pathfinder with about 7500 sold. Not sure whether that is US or global.
Sort of surprised that you can find a battery for it.
I like the way you think!
Great solution, AND the insurance might even pay you for your “loss”.
Let me know when you find a brain.
One of the major shortcomings for EV’s is that you are forced to be dependent on the dealership for maintenance. The dealers have access to the proprietary software for the vehicles to include (most importantly) the battery management system that regulates the charge/discharge of the batteries contained within the module.
The liability for a local mechanic to work on these things is off the charts because IF (very rare, but it can happen) something is messed up in or around the battery the manufacturer will sue the 3rd party maintenance entity and blame them (and probably win) when insurance comes calling for a destroyed vehicle and/or house.
A MAJOR shortcoming to the batteries is that they are very specific to the chemistry and age of the cells because that is what the BMS is attuned with. This is why you cannot take an EV that uses 5000 individual cells (18650’s for example) to the dealer and just have them replace the 500 bad cells with new ones. You would introduce 500 new 18650’s that are “out of tune” with the other 4500 so the BMS will protect the 4500 original cells (it’s job) but it could cause thermal runaway in the 500 new ones because they are all “different”. In other words, even with the same battery chemistry (NMC532 for example) the battery will still be different from the original NMC532 cells.
This is a simplistic explanation, but it does explain why your only choice is to lose 10% of your overall capacity or get a new battery. It’s actually worse because the BMS does not manage individual cells, for financial reasons (and weight reduction because it is much less wiring) the battery is typically organized in rows so the BMS monitors a row of 50 or a row of 100. One bad cell within a row of 50 or 100 and the BMS shuts down and isolates 50-100 batteries. This means the reduction in capacity is very severe for even one bad cell AND you still carry that dead weight for the life of the battery pack.
This problem is one shortcoming that must be solved to improve the economics of an EV. As the article states, there are some battery cells that continue to work for a long time, but the only answer remains to replace the entire pack instead of just replacing a few bad cells and getting another 5-10 years out of the good ones.
IF they could design batteries that were very consistent you might be able to repair the entire pack by removing dead cells and inserting new ones, but they cannot so it’s “all or nothing”.
That might be a bit of a problem when our election-proof legislators are intent on making sure we aren’t ALLOWED to buy anything else. 🤬
Isn't this why it's more often than not that EV repairs after an accident result in the battery having to be replaced?
-PJ
True that. Better to be the tester, using it for free and reporting on the flaws.
My son has a Ford Escape lemon. Small crack in the block lets coolant into the oil and oil into the coolant. Then the transmission went out. The first transmission blew under warranty. This is the second transmission. The car is now worthless.
If you are dumb enough, or pretentious enough, to “invest” in any version of an EV you deserve what you get.
Batt tech is crappola. No improvement in sight for next 5 years. And, if anything good comes along you won’t be able to backfit it.
lol...Not long ago that was a down payment on a home...
For 20K you could buy a brand new Suzuki Hayabusa.
They do 186mph stock.
That high speed wizzzing sound is the reel something took the bait.
Fortunately we don’t have those here.
In states that do, I wonder if 15-year-old cars are expected to meet the same emission standards of brand new cars? Or are they expected to meet emissions standards that were in effect 15 years ago? Which is still unfair it’s a 15-year-old car.
For passenger cars, I think it is what ever was in effect for the car at the time it was built. Antiques that don't have emission controls, can still get license plates but have limited yearly mileage limits. In Illinois, emissions testing is only done in the Chicago area..
We bought a 2009 Infiniti G37S Convertible at auction a couple of years ago. Has the normally aspirated 3.7 liter V-6, which is a gem of an engine. My wife loves it.
Infiniti dealers are expensive, but nothing compared to BMW. If you want the ride, you have to pay the price. I balance whether it’s worth my time to have the dealer do the work or me. I have decent mechanical skills and there are a lot of resources on the internet.
But, I wouldn’t touch an old hybrid with a ten foot pole.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.