The Expert Podcast

So how much would it cost you to replace the battery in your electric vehicle? One of the most common concerns that buyers have on EVs is replacing the battery at some point and electric vehicles don't have an engine or transmission but they do have a battery which may be a source of future repair or cost and batteries degrade in what's called calendar aging. This is an excellent article from recurrent which is a good source for EV technology news and the batteries decrease as they're charged and discharged.

Also the speed at which a battery deteriorates is determined by how the battery is taken care of so two identical vehicles driven the same amount of miles might have one battery last longer if the charging cycles were handled better by the owner meaning that they didn't discharge it down to zero all the time they didn't drive it in hot weather they didn't charge it in cold weather so there's a lot of factors that go into it. So when you're looking at a used electric vehicle you want to make sure that in addition to the condition of the vehicle itself that the battery is also evaluated to see what remaining life is available.

Because here's what you might be facing if you're looking at replacement batteries this article goes through several different vehicles and they range from a couple thousand dollars all the way up to 20 30 000 for some vehicles and it really depends on the battery design and how available that separate battery units are for example on the honda ionic you're talking about two to three thousand dollars for a battery for a volkswagen ego which is similar sized car you're talking twenty three thousand dollars so you wanna make sure you understand what you're getting into with a battery replacement.

And sometimes you can buy these used on ebay um there are some batteries that sell or some people that sell battery packs that are lightly used that can be put into an existing vehicle um you may also find that some vehicles that have had damage to the vehicle might have a battery that can be recovered.

If you need additional parts to replace the battery sometimes that adds to the expense sometimes you can't just swap out a battery you have to change body panels or electrical connectors here's a couple examples of real-world battery costs this producer of this article found a battery for bmw i3 for two thousand dollars 2500 on ebay but then again there was a new battery for the same vehicle that was sixteen thousand dollars so finding a used replacement battery can save you quite a bit of money.

New car dealer for chevrolet quoted sixteen thousand dollars for a battery replacement plus eight hundred and seventy four labor this is a labor intensive process you may be able to find one used but then you start to pay for the labor and find somebody who's willing to do it unlike fixing brakes or shocks on a internal combustion engine vehicle there may not be a lot of mechanics that will be willing to put a battery in your vehicle if they're not a new car dealer they may not have a know-how to do it and you might also have to reset some computers.

Here's one um that's a chevy volt remanufactured battery pack for 6000 from greentech greentech is a company that's refurbishing these batteries for clients last but not least the hyundai ironic replacement battery as an msrp of 2853. so that's a new battery from the dealer for three thousand dollars so there's a big range on battery cost.

Either way you want to make sure that you're evaluating your vehicle purchase to make sure that the battery in the vehicle you're buying is not needing a replacement otherwise you don't have an electric vehicle you have a doorstop.