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Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
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.
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Sure it is a risk. No different than if you put a new engine in an old gas car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
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.
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At 30 cents a kWh that would come out to 7 cents per mile + 8 for the battery = 15 cents (and you have a huge incentive to install solar) That is about the same as a gasser in the low 20 mpg range (for just the gas not including thousands in maintenance the years)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
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.
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Of course manufacturers care about how hard it is to repair their vehicles - we are on the hook for warranty repairs and recalls.
That is one reason that traditional automakers are taking a more conservative approached and forgoing the weight and cost savings that come from gluing together a battery pack. They have all experienced large recalls and understand the risk that comes from having a non-serviceable battery that would have to be replaced as a unit. Image the effect on Tesla if a 5 cent component buried deep in a Model 3 battery failed and Tesla was forced to recall every Model 3 and replace the entire battery pack.