Featured Why repairing your BEV is so expensive—WSJ

Leave it to gokhan to search for antiquated undocumented articles to his inventory of negativity.

Notice the read doesn't say how fast a fast charge they used? Nor do they disclose whether or not the charge was tapered?
They probably skewed their results to prove a point by not tapering their charge rate once charge was above 70% full .... so duuh - many people already know this - but maybe not back when this was published as it WAS ~4 years ago when this article came out - Many readers were ignorant of cell chemistry dynamics which would appear informative to the unlearned.
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Superchargers are running 250kW now. Oh - that's right. In defense of that wacky linked article - you're now claiming tesla isn't really supercharging ... and yet V4 is even higher than 250V. That antiquated & nonsensical article was written even before many fast charging equipment was even in operation. Ironically - defending these charlatans by claiming they weren't talking about superchargers makes no sense. Supercharging was way less powerful years ago - so you can't now come to their defense claiming they were talking about higher wattage when it didn't exist back then. so sorry .....
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This is my 16 minutes supercharging session time last month according to Teslamate. I charged my NCA Lithium battery from 11% to 60% during that 16 minutes. Just before my session was about to end, as you can see in the popup over the graph, I was still at over 1C (battery is 56kWh). About half way through the charging session, I was still at about 2C.



But I do think the Korean are pushing it a bit far and it will be interesting to see in five years how their battery will be holding up.

 

Ok, so hybrid batteries are warrantied to 150,000 miles on new Toyotas.

Coincidentally I just hit 150,000 miles in my Avalon hybrid with no idea what an OEM battery will cost when this one goes out.

I haven't tested and recorded how my car is acting, but sometimes I feel like the engine kicks on a lot more often than it used to, and that's making me a bit nervious about the battery's health.

 

Nor do most people generally know what it would cost if the ICE goes out.
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I would say this:

1. Engines have a long track record of how long they can last and what makes them last. I had a car that I bought with over 300,000 miles on it, the odometer broke, but on paper I was doing over 30,000 miles a year, and I owned that car for 7 years and the engine still ran fine when I sold it. My secret: I changed the oil often. How do I get +500,000 miles out of a BEV battery?
2. Just a quick search gets me a less than 40,000 mile JDM engine that I can swap into my Prius for under $1,500. Will we ever see that kind of pricing with BEV batteries?

 

99% of the driving public doesn't care what you or i can do, nor do any governments or manufacturers

 

If a battery replacement is required in a BEV, it will likely be more than a replacement engine. It's why they cost more to buy. For most people, the difference in fuel cost will result in overall costs being about the same.

 

Is the cost trend on replacement ICE engines going down like batteries?

Which saves more money: LFP batteries instead of NMC or; $7500 subsidy? We really won't know until the Q1 2024 numbers come in.

Bob Wilson

 

Looking at Edmunds' 5-year TCO with my zip code on 2023 models:

• Toyota Corolla Hybrid LE: $34,707
• Cheverolet Bolt LT1: $41,083
• Tesla Model 3 RWD: $58,491

Have replacement batteries actually come down in price? One main reason I sold my Leaf was the replacement battery went up from $5K to $8K. There are also no JDM batteries that I know of.

My question is which will last longer? LFP has more cycles than NMC. But the lower capacity of LFP means they'll be cycled more than NMC over the life of the vehicle.

In a way I'm kind of glad that the $7,500 is going away. I mean, yes, I'd love to get an EV with the $7,500 federal tax credit along with Colorado's $7,500 tax credit (starting January first) both combined. But trying to find a cheap EV that can actually make such incentives make the car affordable for me seems impossible. That, and I'm still not sure if I'd qualify. I'd rather have the price up front, "This is exactly what it will cost," than this guessing game and illusion that BEV's are obtainable.

 

So, where are all these battery replacements for EVs going on?

 

I’ve got shovel and would dig them out of a landfill.

 

perhaps the small battery size prevents you from seeing an amount of parasitic loss - because ALL batteries of that chemistry have some parasitic loss. To claim otherwise is disingenuous. If you had a hundred kwh battery instead, parasitic loss is of course more noticeable.

is that really so astounding? You DO realize that the battery use is much higher what with its Sentry mode and numerous other online capabilities. So of course the Prius not having those features doesn't have that kind of drain.
iirc - many of Tesla's electrical usages can be toned down for long-term storage if that's important.

That's really graceful for you to worry so much about Tesla battery longevity

Here's an example of longevity from another site;
- 239,000 miles on the original battery pack .....

- Original range - 256 miles
- well worn range - 240 miles

Highest mileage with original battery | Tesla Motors Club

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I survived a year in a BEV with a 15% degraded battery from an original 84 mile range, so to me 272 miles would be more than enough.

Yes, there are multiple benefits in having a PHEV like a Prius Prime, which is why I tried to get one when I sold the Nissan Leaf. But ultimately I got the Avalon Hybrid because the Prime was out of my price range (and it only seated 4 at the time too).

 

Isaac, The difference in capacity is not a large percentage, but the number of cycles is a factor of 5 to ten so LFP wins here. Besides, LFP has almost a zero risk of a battery fire.

JeffD