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Originally Posted by JSH
So let say I have a Leaf and the battery fails at 8 years / 100K miles right when the warranty expires. I then buy another new battery from Nissan with another 8 year / 100K mile warranty. If it also fails right at the warranty it will have cost me $1000K a year / $83 a month or 8 cents per mile. Add another 3 cents per mile for electricity to charge the battery and the "fuel" for my EV has cost me $11 cents per mile. That is the equivalent of a gas car getting 33 mpg with gas at $3.50 a gallon. So worst case I'm coming out ahead of buying the typical gas car in the USA. (Currently 24.9 mpg)
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Good points. And it's something a lot of people don't understand. They are willing to pay $1 or two for an ice cream cone but fell $4 is too much for a whole box of ice cream...
On the other hand, putting a lot of money all at once in a car that's worth less than that puts a person in a difficult situation if an accident were to occur. If the next day your car is totaled and according to the insurance company worth only $5,000, there's an extremely small chance you'd be able to get both your $5,000 plus the $8,000 you just spent on your battery. So you wouldn't be able to go and buy another $5,000 Leaf, just like yours, and put in a new battery, just like you had done.
Also, depending on where you live you could be paying as much as 30 cents per kWh. Add it all together and you'd be paying much more than a small gasser.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
You can make a battery pack a stressed member in the chassis without gluing it in place. Engines are stressed members in motorcycle frames and they are still bolted in place and can come out for service.
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Of course this is all speculation. From what I understand a lot of car companies are against right to repair. So they could care less how easy they make their batteries to come apart, especially if the have the excuse "it's a structural member." But in the end, we really don't know what the end result will be for car owners.