The Expert Podcast

Anytime we see examples of EV battery replacement costs, we always like to feature them here. Here’s an article from Green Cars, which is another source of some data we’ve quoted before. This is a new resource talking about the cost to replace an EV battery, and here are some real-world examples that they discuss.

The Prius might cost you $2,700, while a Tesla could cost $20,000. So, there’s a big price range for lithium-ion battery packs. The price has declined since 2007, which is a good thing. A Tesla Model S in 2020 would cost $16,000 before labor—just for the part. But in the future, that might cost $7,000, because the battery production cost may go down. In general, they’re talking about $89 per kilowatt-hour, and in a decade, it might be $56 per kilowatt-hour. As of 2020, the average cost was $137, so you’re talking about half. A typical EV battery with 40 kilowatt-hours could be about $5,000 or $6,000, and some batteries could be as high as $13,000. Again, that’s without labor. Labor can cost another couple thousand.

There’s also a used market for those batteries. eBay is a source for the used market. A Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt had prices of $6,200 and $16,000, respectively. A BMW i3 had a $13,500 battery. There’s a lot of range in what it costs to get a battery for these vehicles. The big question is going to be: is it available? We’ve seen some vehicles that, when they get older, there are no sources for batteries anymore.

If you are driving an electric vehicle and you see your capacity getting down—because once it gets below 70%, the factory warranty probably will kick in. But if it’s still above 70% and you’re not quite at that time yet, you may not have the ability to put in a warranty claim. So, you might want to start looking at used batteries while they’re still available, because there are already some models that are out of production, and you can’t get a new battery for your electric vehicle.

If anybody has put a battery in their electric vehicle as a replacement, put comments below and let us know how much it cost. If you have a copy of the receipt, put it there. I’m sure the other viewers would like to see real-world examples of electric vehicle battery replacement costs.