...And then there's THAT: Replacement Battery for Electric Car cost more than the car

[Jarlaxle]

All battery operated equipment has issues too. Shop lifts are a lot of times a dime a dozen when the batteries are shot and they do not have chargers to go with them. When our shop lift battery *$2,400.00 for new 20+ years ago* was dying we learned we could use four standard car batteries but they would only last for a few hours before needing charged and even at that it would quickly kill the car batteries running them down and recharging them like that.

Your battery supplier is an idiot. You need four deep cycle batteries-Walmart sells them. If the unit is 24V, you probably want four 6V batteries in series. If it's 12V, you want two or four 12V batteries in parallel. Also: if you plug it in to charge, charge it fully. Partial charge/discharge cycles are brutal on batteries.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

One "side" is trying to force it on everybody.

Correct. fossil fuel vehicles don't get government subsides to try and get people to buy them. Nobody on the right tried to increase electric rates to discourage people from buying an EV.

Cell phones didn't need to be pushed on anybody. It was a great invention that almost all Americans wanted. Same with cable or satellite television, same with remote starts for your car, same with video games.

Government subsides are for things that most people don't want. I have no problem with oversized golf carts, but using my tax money to lower their price is what I have a problem with. Deliberately increasing my cost for gasoline is another.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Most EV batteries are in the $6-10,000 range
A major expenditure

But the EV also does not have many of the maintenance expenses of an ICE vehicle

No exhaust system, emissions controls, cooling system, fuel injection/timing, oil changes, complex transmission and drive train, major engine repairs.
Replacing an ICE engine or transmission are very expensive while an Electric Motor or simple transmission is relatively cheap

Something you need to trade off when buying an EV

I've been driving Toyota Camries for over 20 years. Never seen a tow truck, not one has experienced what you listed. When I sold my former Camry, it held great value in spite of the mileage (over 100,000) when I traded them in.

So now if you want to get rid of your EV for a new one, it's basically worthless. Because of the battery problems, you'll have a vehicle with 100,000 miles that you won't be able to give away yet alone trade it in or sell it unless you paid for a new battery recently.

 

[toobfreak]

If you can't afford gas for yiur car, just buy an elecric car ... whose replacement battery costs more than the car....

Really sad. Sad that in part, it is the own family's fault for not looking into EV upkeep to begin with. I guess people naively, stupidly think that you just charge 'em up and EVs just run forever! But I also blame the government for not setting standards that batteries for these older EVs aren't made available during the useful life of the car, that EV batteries are not standardized so that you can always get one like a AA or C type battery from multiple sources since it really is the whole car, and for not requiring CarFax and dealers to be up front about the life and cost of these cars.

Obviously, the person selling the car knew just when to sell it before all of the useful life of the battery had been used up.

The trade-in resale value of EVs who are in the 8-10 year range ought to be ZILCH and ought to take into account the cost of replacing the battery, or better still, ought to be required to come with a brand new battery before being sold!

 

[toobfreak]

Doesn't take away from the fact that electric car batteries are insanely expensive...or that Hunter helped broker a deal to sell US resources, resources needed to build the batteries, to China.

When you take in the cost of the initial new purchase then the life of the batteries and THEIR cost, figure on owning an EV to cost the owner anywhere from approximately $3,500 a year to over $9,000 a year. By the time your initial battery is worn out, the costs of new batteries and the features and abilities of new EV cars will have changed so much in ten years that one must consider that you may not be able to even replace the battery or might not want to, but assuming you keep the car for 20 years, your low end on high end EVs will be close to about $3,000/year.

Not that you will need to pay that out annually, just that at the end of your battery's life, you better be prepared to fork up that much CUMULATIVELY, or at least be able to set aside that much EACH YEAR for your eventual replacement battery (or car) in a decade.

So to any politician or person claiming EVs will save you money and be cheap to operate, they are at least a FOOL, and at worst a big LIAR.

An EV car is strictly for the affluent or at least the climatically mortified.

 

[RodISHI]

Your battery supplier is an idiot. You need four deep cycle batteries-Walmart sells them. If the unit is 24V, you probably want four 6V batteries in series. If it's 12V, you want two or four 12V batteries in parallel. Also: if you plug it in to charge, charge it fully. Partial charge/discharge cycles are brutal on batteries.

Those big fork lifts don't really work well on car or rv batteries. My dad had bought the sister machine to ours at the same military sale and his didn't have a viable battery so he tried marine batteries and it wasn't worth a shit. We babied the original battery in ours for almost fifteen years after we bought it.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Those big fork lifts don't really work well on car or rv batteries. My dad had bought the sister machine to ours at the same military sale and his didn't have a viable battery so he tried marine batteries and it wasn't worth a shit. We babied the original battery in ours for almost fifteen years after we bought it.

Yes, they do, if and only if you use the correct batteries. You did not.

 

[Independent thinker]

If you can't afford gas for yiur car, just buy an elecric car ... whose replacement battery costs more than the car....

Florida family drives into electric car problem: a replacement battery costs more than vehicle itself

A Florida family ran into a major problem after buying an electric vehicle, the replacement battery costs more than they bought the car for.

www.foxbusiness.com

I read about this the other day, not sure if it was the same article or not. But I was amazed to read (in my article) that they were actually apparently planning to spend the 14K on a new battery if they could find one and were also apparently considering the possibility of even paying more than 14K if they could actually find a battery. How stupid is that? The car is 8 years old and was only bought for 11K and, in the interest of saving our environment, they were willing to pay a total of at least or more than 25K for an old piece of shit clunker just in order to save the environment? This is liberalism gone mad.

 

[easyt65]

I read about this the other day, not sure if it was the same article or not. But I was amazed to read (in my article) that they were actually apparently planning to spend the 14K on a new battery if they could find one and were also apparently considering the possibility of even paying more than 14K if they could actually find a battery. How stupid is that? The car is 8 years old and was only bought for 11K and, in the interest of saving our environment, they were willing to pay a total of at least or more than 25K for an old piece of shit clunker just in order to save the environment? This is liberalism gone mad.

When Democrats outlaw tge internal cobustion engine as Biden has decreed, is the govt going to buy back your gas-powered cars, give Americans the money to buy new $60k EVs / $20k batteries?

HOW MUCH will the govt charge you to dispose of your dead car batteries and tge toxic waste, like old solar panels, they present?

 

[Independent thinker]

When Democrats outlaw tge internal cobustion engine as Biden has decreed, is the govt going to buy back your gas-powered cars, give Americans the money to buy new $60k EVs / $20k batteries?

HOW MUCH will the govt charge you to dispose of your dead car batteries and tge toxic waste, like old solar panels, they present?

Your only mistake in that analysis is that Democrats don't give a damn about how much money is spent. So, they would do most of that stuff if you gave them that opportunity. Money is no object because Uncle Sam has a charge card with no limit. And, it is our patriotic duty to pay high prices in exchange for saving our planet.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

HOW MUCH will the govt charge you to dispose of your dead car batteries and tge toxic waste, like old solar panels, they present?

You just follow the Democrat motto that they always use for their failed ideas: We'll worry about that when the time comes.

 

[percysunshine]

I've been driving Toyota Camries for over 20 years. Never seen a tow truck, not one has experienced what you listed. When I sold my former Camry, it held great value in spite of the mileage (over 100,000) when I traded them in.

So now if you want to get rid of your EV for a new one, it's basically worthless. Because of the battery problems, you'll have a vehicle with 100,000 miles that you won't be able to give away yet alone trade it in or sell it unless you paid for a new battery recently.

EVs are good for scrap plastic parts at a recycle center.

Ok...the lithium in the battery will have value.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

EVs are good for scrap plastic parts at a recycle center.

Ok...the lithium in the battery will have value.

Maybe, but nothing worth buying one for. Would you buy a used electric vehicle five years old or with over 100,000 miles? It makes the used vehicle virtually worthless.

 

[RodISHI]

Yes, they do, if and only if you use the correct batteries. You did not.

So, you should be able to run an electric car on standard car batteries too, huh?

 

[Jarlaxle]

So, you should be able to run an electric car on standard car batteries too, huh?

Probably not...those are a lot more complicated than an electric forklift. (They also have a lot less battery room.)