Wow! Leaf low battery replacement cost - $5500 dealer!!!

[douglas685]

This looks to be great news. Nissan is now selling brand new replacement packs for the leaf for only $5500. I knew battery prices would be coming down, but I didn't know it would be THIS fast!!

Since the Ford EV has 8yr/100k, I would say the battery risk is pretty minimal. In 5-8 years, battery packs should be less than $3000 at this rate. I would bet that in 5 years you might be able to get a battery pack with 2-3 times the power (45KWish-60KW's or so) for the Focus EV for $3000 installed. Imagine being able to go 210 miles. If by that time Ford has released a quick-charge retrofit, now the Focus is worthy of the great American road-trip.

Even if none of these things come to pass, batteries for $5500 in 2014 is a great start. This nearly eliminates the "battery replacement" fear from EV's, since in a few years the prices look like it will be in line with a transmission replacement in a standard combustion engine car; not cheap, but not insane (like $12,000-$15,000) either.

Read all about it here:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1092983_nissan-leaf-battery-cost-5500-for-replacement-with-heat-resistant-chemistry

 

[studio460]

Unfortunately, Moore's Law doesn't seem to apply to either batteries or solar panels. From what I've read, modern Li-ion battery chemistries are at their peak power-to-weight ratio, with no significant cost "breakthrough" in sight. What could help is economies of scale due to increased EV market penetration.