Car Battery Replacements That Cost More Than You Think

Over the past couple of decades, electric vehicles have gone from being a niche subsection of the car industry to being seen as the future of the automobile. Ownership of electric cars is booming across the world, as more customers take advantage of increasing ranges, groundbreaking performance, and an ever-expanding range of vehicles to choose from. However, EVs are not without their limitations, and there are still plenty of hidden costs to be aware of if you plan on keeping your car for a long time.

The biggest, and most unavoidable, of those costs, is a battery replacement for the car. Current battery technology dictates that after a certain number of charge cycles, the capacity of the battery will degrade, reducing the range of the car. Over time, that range might shorten so much that a replacement is the only practical option, or the battery might develop a fault that causes it to stop working altogether. As the owners of many older electric and hybrid cars are finding out the hard way, replacing a car's battery can cost a lot more than expected.

Smart's signature supermini seems like a natural candidate for electric conversion, as most of its owners are city dwellers who won't need a huge amount of range for their daily commutes. The electric Fortwo first launched in select markets in 2007, before launching in the U.S. and Canada at the end of 2010 (via New Atlas). At launch, the car only had an official range of 83 miles, and its top speed was limited to 62 mph, making it all but useless anywhere apart from a congested city. Still, the car found plenty of fans both in the U.S. and across the rest of the world, with Daimler producing over 1,500 examples each year.

The car was always designed to be an affordable runabout, so the idea of shelling out large sums of money to keep one running seems like a non-starter. Unfortunately, owners in need of a battery replacement won't have much choice, because the average cost of replacement reportedly sits somewhere around the $18-20,000 mark. For comparison, when the electric Smart was axed in 2019, its starting price was $24,650.

The first production Tesla still remains the brand's only proper sports car, despite Elon Musk's repeated assurances that a new-generation Roadster is just around the corner. The first-gen car sold out of its 2,500-unit production run in 2012, although at an MSRP of $109,000, it was only affordable to a lucky few, to begin with. Thanks to its rarity, along with its legacy as a piece of EV history, used values of the Roadster have held up exceptionally well. They don't often come up for sale, but when they do, expect to pay close to the original asking price, and perhaps more for a rare "Signature 100" model.

While the low production volume of the car makes up-to-date replacement data practically impossible to find, Tesla's 2015 battery upgrade for the Roadster does reveal a rough estimate of how much a battery replacement might cost. The upgrade, which promised around 40% more range over the original battery pack, retailed for $29,000. Although that's as much as some new cars, with the Roadster's excellent resale values, it seems like a fair price to pay.

A rival to the E-Golf, the Focus was built on much the same ethos as its German competition. Take a well-loved family hatchback and simply add an electric drivetrain. The trouble is, the gas-powered Focus gained fans because it was reliable, comfortable, and cheap to maintain, while the electric version seemingly forgot about the last part. Some buyers who bought a Focus Electric assuming it would be just as affordable to run as its gas-powered sibling got a nasty surprise when the car's batteries failed unexpectedly.

One family, speaking to a local news outlet, told reporters that they'd paid $11,000 for the car as a means for their 17-year-old daughter to get to school. The car was eight years old at the time they bought it and had just 60,000 miles on the odometer, but less than six months later, it had stopped working altogether thanks to a battery fault. The Ford dealership advised the family that the battery pack would cost $14,000 to replace, more than they paid for the car. The dealership eventually offered the family just $500 to take it off their hands, which they declined. While this is one isolated case, it begs the question of how much risk the average buyer is willing to take when it comes to buying a used EV. Evidently, buying the wrong one could leave them with a huge bill that they won't want, or simply can't afford, to pay.

While replacement hybrid batteries for a Prius might be reasonably priced, not every hybrid owner will be so lucky. Mercedes-Benz hybrids seem to have particularly extortionate battery replacement costs, at least if the experience of one UK owner is anything to go by. A local news outlet reported that the owner took an E300 hybrid to a Mercedes-Benz dealership after its battery failed, and was quoted around £15,000 (roughly $18,500) for a replacement. Believing he was being ripped off, he took the car to an independent specialist, who confirmed that no cheaper alternative was available.

At the time of the failure, the car was only eight years old, but its book value was less than the proposed repair price. A spokesperson for the automaker responded to the claims made in the article by stating that the car's hybrid batteries were only covered under warranty for the first three years it was on the road and that the owner should have been made aware of this before purchasing the car. Hardly much comfort to the exasperated buyer who had to choose between forking out for a five-figure repair bill or scrapping the car altogether.

The Model 3 is Tesla's most affordable model, with prices currently starting at just under $44,000 without tax incentives. Tesla's battery packs have gained a reputation for being among the most long-lasting on the market, with very little degradation even after racking up the miles. InsideEVs reported that an average Tesla battery should still retain 90% of its range even after 200,000 miles, making it outlast the vehicle in most cases. However, there's still the issue of unexpected out-of-warranty failure to consider, and in the rare case that you need to replace the battery of a Model 3, it's not going to be cheap.

Recurrent estimates the price of battery replacement to be roughly $15,800, or in the case that a battery needs repair due to damage in an accident, around $10,000-$12,000. It's worth noting that this is only a rough estimate, as there simply isn't enough data around to make an accurate overall average. Even so, it's still a significant portion of the initial value of the car, and it's more than many Americans would be comfortable paying out for repairs. This has been shown to put plenty of potential buyers off purchasing a Tesla altogether, with SlashGear's 2022 survey suggesting that 65% of respondents wouldn't buy one simply because of the risk of costly battery failures, even if that risk is a small one.