New battery for $13,000 EV costs $121,000, owner says
Zoe Alford bought a secondhand electric 2011 Nissan Leaf for $13,000 and was looking forward to saving money on fuel and saving the planet.
But within a few months the EV’s range had dropped from around 115km to 70-80km, leading her to develop range anxiety, TVNZ’s One News reports.
Alford contacted her local Nissan dealer but told TVNZ’s Fair Go she was quoted $121,000 for a replacement battery from Japan.
She says she got no response after contacting Nissan New Zealand’s head office – so Fair Go tried and says it was told the quote was an error.
Nissan New Zealand doesn’t take responsibility for the thousands of secondhand Nissans brought from Japan.
Secondhand replacement battery costs seemed more reasonable for Alford.
Auckland EV specialists Blue Cars’ manager-director Bill Alexander reckons there should be more co-operation on a way of providing cost-effective replacement batteries.
Blue Cars has developed a prototype replacement, extending battery life by replacing cells which could add 10-15 years to a secondhand EV and allow 100-200km range.
It tested the prototype in December.
The company believes every dealer needs to ensure their customers understand EVs and how to use them.
Blue Cars also provides a warranty for the main battery.
So Alford hopes Blue Cars will have a battery replacement available when her EV battery finally dies.
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Geoff you should know that it is very rare that an EV batteries die. What happens is a gradual yearly decrease in capacity and eventually the range is no longer good enough for someone. Most often the car can and will and are simply moved onto someone else with lower range requirements. At some stage of course the car will have so little range that it is of little use to many people and that is that point at which battery replacement would be a good option. Maybe with 3rd party battery replacements becoming available in the near future people will be replacing their batteries at an earlier stage.