Replacement
-
With more than 300,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars on the road, some more than six years old, battery degradation is becoming more and more of an issue. The different rates of capacity loss are a topic of much discussion among Leaf owners, but it now seems likely that Nissan's choice of passive air cooling rather than active liquid cooling has contributed to faster capacity loss than in GM or Tesla electric cars. Now Nissan has announced a new option for Leaf owners, one that's considerably less expensive than buying a new battery pack off the shelf for an aging Leaf. DON'T MISS: Nissan Leaf...
-
New life for old Nissan Leaf electric car: battery replacement and what it took
The 2018 Nissan Leaf will likely be revealed within the next three months, but more than 100,000 older Leaf electric cars are still silently in use on U.S. roads. Some of them, especially the lowest-range cars from the two earliest model years (2011 and 2012), have started to see significant...
John Voelcker -
How much is a replacement Chevy Bolt EV electric-car battery?
It's one of the most common questions among electric-car buyers: what happens if the battery fails? The answer is that all electric-car batteries are warranted against failure for either 8 years/100,000 miles or 10 years/150,000 miles, depending on which state you live in. The followup is often...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius Owners: Beware Battery Theft, Perhaps By Inept Thieves
There's been a rash of Toyota Prius battery thefts in San Francisco, and speculation that the stolen packs are being peddled as cheap replacement parts.
Stephen Edelstein -
Nissan Leaf $5,500 Battery Replacement Loses Money, Company Admits
Last month, electric-car owners finally learned the price of a replacement battery pack for the Nissan Leaf: a surprisingly low $5,500 after the old pack is traded in. Many advocates and Leaf owners promptly seized on the price to "prove" that Nissan could now build batteries for less than $250 per...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf New Battery Cost: $5,500 For Replacement With Heat-Resistant Chemistry
Three and a half years after the first Nissan Leaf went on sale, Nissan has announced the cost of a replacement lithium-ion battery pack for its electric car. It's a surprisingly low $5,499 (after a $1,000 credit for turning in the old pack, which is required), plus installation fees and tax. The...
John Voelcker -
It's become a common part of road testing: Get the car up to speed, then roll down a window to see how bad the drumming and buffeting gets. Never experienced it? Try it on your own car sometime. Now, it turns out, there's an aerodynamic add-on fix available to cure the worst of the thrumming vibrations in the Chevrolet Volt, the best-selling plug-in electric car on the U.S. market. Carmakers routinely spend hundreds or thousands of hours in the wind tunnel with every new car design, working to smooth airflow over the car's body. Above about 40 mph, the energy required for the car to push air...
-
Nissan To Offer Leaf Battery Replacement Plan: $100 A Month
To allay fears about loss of capacity in its Leaf electric-car battery packs, Nissan announced today that it would offer what amounts to a battery leasing program after the pack goes out of warranty. The cost of ensuring minimum capacity will be $100 a month. The company now warranties the Leaf...
John Voelcker -
Replacing A 2001 Toyota Prius Battery Pack: What It Cost
It's one of the most frequent questions asked about hybrids: What happens if I have to replace the high-voltage battery pack? While Toyota warrants its Prius batteries for 8 years/100,000 miles (or 10 years/150,000 miles in some states), cars more than a decade old won't be covered--and may still...
John Voelcker -
2012 Ford Focus Battery Pack Cost: $12,000-$15,000, Says CEO
Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the actual cost to automakers of the lithium-ion battery packs used in most modern electric cars. Unfortunately, the automotive industry hasn’t been keen to disclose any figures, but on occasion we’ve managed...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Life After Death: What Happens When Your Prius Battery Dies
Believe it or not, the humble Toyota Prius has been on sale in the U.S. for 12 years. While many of these original 2000 Priuses are still giving their owners the same gas milage they did when new, traction battery packs inside early cars are reaching the end of their predicted 10 year, 300,000 mile...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield