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Battery replacement cost…..


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I see this as a big problem with EVs. Some manufacturers insist that you replace the whole battery if a cell goes bad. Others, such as Toyota and their Prius allow you to replace individual cells. If that was the case with this Ford, the replacement cost of a bad cell would be in the $1000 range. I see this as a manufacturer design to increase repair costs to benefit dealers that will be loosing routine maintenance such as oil changes.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if the dealerships or service centers and their techs just aren’t ready for open pack surgeries yet. They’ll probably need to get more guys trained for the EVs in general just to remove and replace entire packs and since these are under warranty under those circumstances,  they may treat it like a blown engine and want them back to see what happened. Possibility they would take those to determine if the rest of the pack is ok then replace what is shot with matched good cells then put them in inventory as factory reman at a lower price. Having remans like that should reduce cost to replace a pack that went bad through use, age, collision, ect then those that just don’t have the life left for vehicular use can be put into service where a battery backup in conjunction with or in place of a generator for use during power outages.

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You have to wonder where does the old battery go? Land Fill or some sort of recycling with all the nasty chemicals and such? A vehicle, even a few years old needing a $30k battery replacement sounds like the vehicle is totaled.  You guessed it, I'm an old proud ICE believer. 

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Remember back in 2008, you could get a GM full sized truck/SUV hybrid?

At one point, those batteries were over $10k to replace.

Now one can get a replacement for under $3k CDN. Still a pricey repair, but no more than an engine overhaul or major transmission work.

 

Replacing an iPad battery used to cost more than a new iPad. Now it's under $100.

 

Button cell batteries used to be $10 each, now you can go to Amazon and get 30 of them for $8.

 

And yet somehow, people still think that once an F150 Lightning's battery needs replacing in about 8-10 years under normal usage, they'll still be over $30k. There are people that really believe that the cost of EVs and their components won't come down in price as they become more commonplace?

And before that? The warranty on EV components is 8 years.

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2 hours ago, BlackSheep214 said:

Let's not forget I've heard consumers complaining it takes a week to fully charge a F-150 EV truck. ROFLMAO!

 

If you plug it into a standard wall outlet, like you would use to charge your phone, then yeah, it takes days.

 

Use the charger that actually comes with the truck, and it's about 45 minutes to an hour from 10% to fully charged.

 

 

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The problem with EV's is that if we were to replace what we have today in the world with EV's the demand for Cobolt and Litium is going to be 3 times known resources today...so there will be a huge shortage on these materials.

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I've been reading where future EVs will have the battery as an integral part of the chassis. (I assume in order to save weight.) When the battery goes bad, you will have to replace the entire car. Gee, disposable cars, just like all the other electronic equipment we use today.

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38 minutes ago, BlackSheep214 said:

 

Let's run a little experiment. 

Let your cellphone get down to under 5% battery life. Put it in your freezer overnight. Then plug it in while it's still in the freezer, and tell us how your charging experience is. Pretty crappy, I'll bet. 

Now do the same thing, but before you charge it, take the phone out of the freezer and let it warm up for an hour. Now how is that charging going? Better isn't it?

 

 So even though sometimes a person can't properly look after their phone or charge it in the right conditions, people still buy them. Why is that? 

 

As I've mentioned before, I'm Fleet Sales Manager for a Ford dealership. We sell a ton of Mach-Es and Lightnings. We've had a Lighting here for demo use for the past 6 months. Worked fine in -40 Celcius. Charged fine too. Plug it in to a proper charging station (like the one that comes with the truck) and it will automatically pre-condition/heat the batter while plugged in so that it can properly charge. And in the extreme cold, you won't get 500km out of a charge like you do in summer, but you'll still get 250km. so just like a gas engine, you lose range in the cold.

EV is not for everyone, but it's a good choice for many. 

 

Not sure who you're trying to convince with all of the negative nonsense you keep posting about it.

I guess those fearful of change will always find something to glom onto to "prove" that change is bad and scary.

 

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1 hour ago, BlackSheep214 said:

This exact issue happened to my brother in law on Christmas eve too!  We had 19 degree weather here in NW Indiana on Christmas eve, and his Tesla just wouldn't charge.  Supercharger wouldn't charge it, took it to a relative's garage and put the heat on for a few hours...still wouldn't charge...he ended up trapped in a motel over Christmas because he was saving his 30-miles remaining range until it was warm enough to get back to the nearest Supercharger to try again.

BUT, in the same weather it was so cold that I couldn't get my dinosaur-fuelled Mustang into gear when I first started it, and the idle was lumpy as a pile of rocks for 10 minutes until it finally started to warm up a little, and then it developed a sensor issue on my commute that put it into limp mode that eventually away when the weather was a little warmer.

Only solution I've figured out is just move where it isn't so cold 🤷‍♂️😁

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First off at this point going all electric is not feasible. However those that are getting rich from it don't care. Most of the negative points have been covered and it seems pointless to continuing the conversation.

If you think about it when the automobile replaced the horse it wasn't a very practical solution. There were barely roads and limited fuel supplies. 

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Running anything down that far gas or electric is dumb, esp in cold. Fuel lines freeze, condensation in tank, etc. Batteries like it even less. 
Winter driving with less than 1/2 tank or 1/2 charge is begging for issues. 
I’d guess I trust Dan’s experience with real world stuff. 
Not for everyone, but it’s how it’s going to be. 

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3 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

 

First off at this point going all electric is not feasible. However those that are getting rich from it don't care. Most of the negative points have been covered and it seems pointless to continuing the conversation.

If you think about it when the automobile replaced the horse it wasn't a very practical solution. There were barely roads and limited fuel supplies. 

 

Correct! Full switchover to EV won't work for at least 10 years. Until the infrastructure is in place to support it, it will continue to be something that makes sense for only a portion of the drivers out there.

I'm sure there were a lot of similar arguments 100 years ago, as you said with the change from horse & buggy to automobile. It wasn't practical at first either. But eventually, the infrastructure was built and it turned out pretty good. 

 

22 minutes ago, keyser said:

Running anything down that far gas or electric is dumb, esp in cold. Fuel lines freeze, condensation in tank, etc. Batteries like it even less. 
Winter driving with less than 1/2 tank or 1/2 charge is begging for issues. 
I’d guess I trust Dan’s experience with real world stuff. 
Not for everyone, but it’s how it’s going to be. 

 

I'm no expert, but I've experienced EVs first hand.

I'll continue to think they're a good idea, but I'm not blind to the fact that we're not ready for a full switch to EV yet, and that it's not going to be the right vehicle solution for everyone.

 

 

 

And let's be honest here. Is there ANY piece of equipment in our daily lives that performs well in extreme cold? I'm not talking about this -7 Celcius weather. That barely classifies as chilly. I'm referring to temps colder than -25 Celcius or so, or roughly -15 Farenheit. In December, we had a week or so where daytime highs were around -40 C, which is -40 F. And it got colder overnight. Nothing runs or drives properly in that kind of weather. 

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Once again another ev thread ends up with the chicken little syndrome on how civilization is going to collapse because of evs.

Given that I think ev topics need to be put in the off topic section.

No matter how they start the threads all recap the same things ad nauseum. Give it a rest guys.

 

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