A replacement battery for Chevrolet's Volt costs more than the car?

Not a well written article.

Ends with this paragraph:

So, what does a replacement Chevy Volt battery actually cost? No one seems to know for sure. Any of our readers have first-hand experience with this, perhaps from a crashed Volt that had a new pack installed? If you do, please let us know in Comments.

So basically the author is ending with an admission that they don't know the answer to the very question they are asking.
I'm willing to bet that it's NOT $34,000....

 

i am betting around 5-10.

 

By the time a battery needs to be replaced outside of warranty, I'd say it will be under $5000. Even then it will likely be less since they can just replace the module with the bad cell.

The real cost is going to be in the labor, though.

 

By the time the batteries will need a replacement, I hope, that GM will make a bigger capacity battery pack available as a replacement. A 20kWh battery would be nice
After 18 months, I've just past 39.000km with my Ampera, with Lifetime consumption at 0.64l/100km, so I'm pretty satisfied

 

I don't think the labor's going to be too bad to change the battery. The dealers that sell Volts have to have the tool that lowers the battery out of the car. It actually looks easier than changing the Prius battery. The next time I'm at the local Chevy dealer, I'll ask.

 

Yep, that's where they added the center brace in the tunnel.

 

The item labeled as "1" on the diagram and named a "battery" in the table is actually a battery tray.
- Alex

 

No, it's a complete battery.

 

That is what I thought it was from previous discussions on this topic, but what hazardous material would a battery tray contain? Just a mislabel?

Swapping a pack appears to be plug and play. You could likely do it yourself with a transmission or motorcycle jack and some jack stands. Presumably, the cost of replacing the entire pack will mostly be the pack itself. Out of warranty, the owner might want to save some of that by just having the faulty modules or cells replaced. The labor cost I was thinking of was that involved in digging into the pack to do so.

 

You can buy the entire unit #1, or you can buy the 3 modules seperately for around $1000 each. I don't know where you can get the seperate cells.

Car Part listings for the battery.
Search Results

Here's a listing for the PiP battery.
Search Results

 

So, it makes PiP the first and only plugin car with 10 years / 150k miles battery warranty?

 

First but not only. The Ford Energis have it in CARB states. As does the ELR and Volts with the $0 clean emission package. PZEV and the warranty are requirements to qualify for the California rebate and HOV sticker.

All PPIs may have the extended warranty. Then again, they are only sold in CARB states. Once/if availibility is expanded outside CARB regions, the warranty will be the 8yr/100k mile federal one as it is with the non plug in.

Regardless of whether you see this government market intervention as good or bad, it is the reason hybrids have such long warranties on their batteries. It's possible Toyota may have offered an extended warranty to combat consumer concerns, but not likely. In the past, it wasn't until a manufacturer had to fix a poor reliability reputation that the extended warranties came out. See GM/Chrysler powertrain warranties and Hyundai/Kia bumper to bumper.

 

The thumbnail below is fron a GM catalog, not one that's online. It shows the battery assembly, which is a refurbished unit. It's complete and ready for installation.

This thumbnail shows the cover and associated parts. It's not available as a complete part.

This thumbnail shows the battery modules. They are new.

 

The pricing makes sense then with it being refurbished. Only the bad cells or modules were replaced.

According to the thumb nail for the modules, a new battery will be $4275 plus the cost of getting them installed in the case.

 

thats sounds more what i expected

 

It is $260 to $270 per kWh. Back in 2o12 it price was in the $500 to $600 range, with a research company predicting the price to drop below $200 by 2020.

Battery technology charges ahead | McKinsey & Company

The Tesla S 85kWh pack will cost almost $45000 if a person wants to upgrade their 60 kWh pack. That,s around $525 per kWh, but that includes the assembly of the cells into the battery and the case itself, which is a structural component of the car.Life With Tesla Model S: Battery Upgrade From 60 kWh To 85 kWh (Page 3)

The $260 for the Volt battery is just the cells assembled into modules. It is probably about the lowest GM could sell it for.

Best guess cost for a Prius battery back in 2005 was around $5000, IIRC. I could be wrong and that was one of the myth numbers tossed around. Anyway, the Volt battery per kWh cost is probaly the same or less than the Prius one's cost from back then.

 

The battembly change isn't cut and dry either. I asked the tech that's been doing the bracket recalls and he guessed about 10 hours R&R on a replacement of the battery and rattled off a bunch of procedures. That makes a cash job around $4200 + tax.

 

Between the 3 module charge and labor plus tax, Volt owners may be looking at a $6000 bill. That will be a bitter pill to swallow on a 8 - 10 year old car and I imagine will typically lead to the car graveyard, or at best a secondary market hosted by people willing to try and repair the battery.

I've been saying it for years, and I see no reason to change my mind: very large batteries are an achilles heel of EVs.

 

And a $5000 bill is a very bitter pill for PiP owners to swallow in 3 years when they need to replace their battery.

Of course, I don't believe PiP owners will need to replace their batteries in three years at a cost of $5000 any more than I believe Volt owners will need to spend $6000 to replace theirs.