Electric vehicles, particularly used EVs, have really only been around in the market for around 5-10 years and in a large volume only for a few years. Now that we’re starting to see more used electric vehicles come into the marketplace, replacement battery costs are starting to be more of an issue. In an article from Vehicle Suggest, this family purchased an electric vehicle and they found out that replacing the battery costs more than the vehicle itself. Just for the battery. This is something that’s avoidable and what happened, in this case, is they bought a vehicle for $11,000 and they find out that the battery costs $14,000 for a replacement battery in their used EV Ford Focus. What happens when the replacement battery costs more than the car? The cost may not be worth it and the car might end up being scrapped. How does this happen?  

Well, keep in mind that electric vehicle batteries degrade over time. In fact, most of the warranties on EV batteries say that as long as the battery is 70% of its initial capacity it’s still valid. You don’t get a warranty claim unless it goes below 70%. How would that work if your engine only works 70% of the time? It’s a little bit different from a warranty experience with gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles. 

So what you want to do is you want to check out the battery on any electric vehicle you buy before you buy it. Just like you check out engine brakes, and transmission on a gas car, you want to check out the battery on an EV. You want to check out the capacity, check out the remaining life if it can still charge up to a full charge, are there any error codes, and how much has been used up. What affects the degradation of a battery? It’s not just mileage you can’t just go by the miles on the odometer. It has to do with how fast that vehicle battery was charged on a regular basis. If you use a DC fast charger, that degrades the battery faster. If you live in a hot environment or cold environment that could also degrade the battery faster. There are many factors other than mileage or even time that can affect how badly a battery starts to break down.

So make sure to do o your due diligence, have that battery checked out before you write a check for any used electric vehicle, and make sure that the battery you’re buying is worth the price that you’re paying for the vehicle.