The battery is the most important part of an electric car. If it breaks, it will be expensive for the driver. An overview of how high the costs of a replacement battery at Tesla, Mercedes and Co. are.
With electronic devices, the battery performance will eventually decrease – this also applies to electric cars. A defect is also possible. The warranty usually applies to newer cars. Most car manufacturers have agreed on a battery guarantee of eight years and a mileage of 160,000 kilometers.
If, on the other hand, there is no right to a guarantee, the vehicle owner must pay for the costs of the defective battery himself. “Unfortunately, manufacturers still have a hard time providing information about concrete prices for battery repairs after the warranty has expired, even if they should be able to estimate the material and time expenditure very well,” writes the ADAC. So how much does a new battery including installation cost?
When asked by Tesla, the “Autobild” learned that the electric car manufacturer “basically does not communicate prices for batteries”. Therefore, you have “basically no access to these numbers” yourself, according to a Tesla spokeswoman. According to a former technician, a replacement battery for the Model X cost 15,000 euros “years ago”. In the case of a warranty claim, however, Tesla does not replace the battery, but simply renews the existing battery. The same is true of other automakers. If the damage is basically covered by the warranty, the manufacturer will replace individual battery modules or replace the entire battery.
It should be noted, however, that a minimum limit of usable battery capacity is usually set, which is set at 70 percent after eight years of operation or 160,000 kilometers. If a battery no longer reaches this 70 percent capacity after a full charge before the end of the eight years, a warranty claim can be asserted.
Electric car: Prices for replacement batteries in the double-digit thousand range
The cost of a replacement battery remains a secret for many automakers. When asked, Opel stated that there were no prices for replacement batteries because this case could not occur. Audi and Fiat do not reveal the prices either. BMW distinguishes between insurance damage caused by accident or theft and defects. For the former, the total costs are 14,000 euros, with a defect outside the warranty period, the Munich-based company gives a maximum price of 12,000 euros.
At VW the prices are similar. For the ID models, they should be between 10,000 and 15,000 euros, for the older models based on MQB, such as the e-Golf and e-Up, it is 10,000 to 20,000 euros. “The fluctuating prices are due to the complexity and the number of items,” said a VW spokesman. VW is developing a “new unit cell” to significantly reduce battery prices. Old batteries are also to be processed soon. Finally, for repair work inside the battery, the vehicle is sent to a high-voltage expert in one of the approximately 450 repair centers handed over by Volkswagen.
Mercedes, however, gives exact prices for a replacement battery. Some of them are still above the value of 20,000 euros. This costs 15,209.22 euros for the EQA, 19,603.12 euros for the EQS and 27,230.31 euros for the EQV. Smart drivers get away with it much more cheaply. You pay 6537.92 euros. However, the condition is that the old battery is returned. “The demand for a battery replacement part is constantly in the single-digit per thousand range,” says Mercedes.
Honda estimates the price for the e-model at 7283 euros, a replacement battery for the Dacia Spring costs 6769.65 euros. Renault only gives approximate prices of around 9,000 euros for the Zoe, Kangoo ZE and Twingo Electric. Customers pay around 4,000 euros for the Twizy light car. At Nissan, a replacement battery costs 10,306 euros for the small Leaf battery and 15,516 euros for the large one.
Volvo, Hyundai and Kai, on the other hand, calculate prices per module. In the event of defects, only the defective modules would be replaced, the failure of a complete battery is very unlikely. How expensive this is when the battery is getting old can only be determined by adding up all the modules. For example, a replacement battery for the Hyundai Kona-e costs between a good 20,000 and almost 34,000 euros – depending on the battery size. The price for the Kia models is between around 6,000 and 10,400 euros, for the Volvo XC40 Recharge 37,854 euros.
Removal and installation requires several hours of work
In addition to the purchase price of the replacement battery, affected drivers have to pay for the battery replacement, which takes several hours. According to a report by ADAC, a module repair of removing and installing the entire battery case and testing takes about a day.
According to “Autobild”, the battery replacement is a little faster, depending on the manufacturer. At Dacia, for example, it is 2.4 working hours, Honda calculates 4.4 hours. The Hyundai e-Soul and e-Niro require up to 6.9 working hours, and the Kia EV6 even 9.5 working hours. Renault specifies 3.8 working hours for the Zoe and 3.0 working hours for the Twingo Electric. Even with the Twizy, there are still 2.5 hours. Nissan is a bit faster with 2.3 to 2.6 working hours for the compact car Leaf. In general, costs of up to 200 euros per working hour must be expected.
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Source: Stern
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