It ’s a fact of life : batteries fail . Laptops can power down during presentations and cell earphone calls can knock off in the midst of a crisis . Now it seems that you could tot cars to that oh - so-21st hundred tilt of worry . Hybridandelectric carsare gaining more popularity in showrooms worldwide asgas pricesrise and the surround degrade , and these cars expend gravid arrays of batteries as a power informant .
Of course , considering ( likely ) past experience , a possible loan-blend or electric vehicle vendee will may reflect a brace of questions , namely , " Will those batteries die like my cell sound ? " and more importantly , " How much will it cost to exchange one ? "
Before we answer those enquiry , let ’s jubilantly expose a long - endure myth first . For the record , hybrid batteries are only very distant first cousin to those used in laptops and cell phones , so you do n’t have to worry about your car dying in the midsection of a drive . As for cost , most experts match a replacement hybrid car battery can range anywhere from $ 1,000 to more than $ 6,000 , look on the year and model of railcar , and without including dealership or independent labor movement monetary value .
While this may seem like a openhanded expense , car Almighty are set on reduce damage . Why would they do that ? It issue forth down to this : fundamentally , cable car manufacturers desire their products to win . Failures in performance hinder that succeeder , so most intercrossed car stamp battery are designed to last the life of the automobile . The state of rush , temperature and longevity in each battery are cautiously managed by automakers who know full well that any blow could throw a wrench into the growth of the still comparatively nascent hybrid grocery store .
That said , the microscope stage is set for a leaping fore inhybrid railroad car barrage fire technology . For the past decade , the vast majority of batteries were made from a nickel metal hydride ( NiMH ) formula , butlithium - ion– the raw kid on the technology block – may take over the intercrossed world in the coming long time . The shift from NiMH to atomic number 3 - ion will likely get along with a Mary Leontyne Price , both in full term of dollars and experimentation . At the conclusion of the day , though , the questions remain : How much it will be to replace a hybrid bombardment now ? How much will it cost in the future ?
Why Does a Hybrid Battery Cost So Much to Replace?
The history of thehybrid car batteryhas involved a lot of experiment . The first production level hybrid , the Honda Insight , off showroom story in December 1999 . Toyota would field thePriusa short time later . Both car , as with the huge majority of hybrid batteries today , boasted an come forth technology with a stumble - or - miss track record .
To make matter worse , supervene upon the earliest Prius stamp battery would have cost a cool $ 5,500 . Fortunately , the second generation Prius overcome the shortcomings of the previous version and produced a better battery system for about $ 2,000 less [ germ : Kwong ] . The third propagation barrage fire pack boast a terms tag of about $ 2,400 .
With the early oddity out of the way – principally smaller problems due to battery direction scheme – the electric battery pack became one of the more dependable part of a intercrossed car .
What makes a reliable hybrid elevator car battery , anyway ? Craig Van Batenburg , main executive officer of the Automotive Career Development Center in Worcester , Mass. , cites the 2004 Ford Escape hybrid as a model for a winning system . The Sanyo - manufacture pack is wield by sophisticated figurer software package , and an active cooling organization keep the pack at optimum operating temperature . " It ’s pretty much unassailable , " he said .
And therein lies the trouble of set what a hybrid battery pack costs to exchange .
" It ’s unmanageable to pinpoint the precise cost of replacing today ’s hybrid batteries because so few are being replaced , " said Bradley Berman , editor of HybridCars.com , add that cost also look on dealership and labour expenses . Toyota estimates their battery unsuccessful person charge per unit at less than one percent – and that number is dropping . So , how much can you have a bun in the oven to pay for a replacement loanblend assault and battery ? " The good ballpark figure is between $ 2,000 and $ 3,000 , although battery pack can be found much chintzy in junkyard that have wrecked hybrids , " Berman say .
The size of the hybrid can also affect a battery ’s monetary value . Van Batenburg said a replacement battery for a Ford Escape hybrid SUV can be up of $ 5,000 , though it ’s unlikely that you ’ll postulate to supervene upon the battery before you ’ll demand to replace the fomite itself . The battery for the Toyota Highlander , another intercrossed SUV , will cost about $ 4,900 to replace , though the company recently was able to contract that toll by $ 400 [ generator : Kwong ] .
One thing is well-defined , however : Toyota plan to add a million hybrids to the market each class , so consumers can carry a acute free fall in replacement costs . Since most known cross have been on the roads for a decennary or more , consumers may see an uptick in intercrossed barrage fire refilling in the coming years . They may be honest and long - know , but cross batteries will , like most car constituent , hold out out in time .
To learn more about intercrossed car technology , take a looking at the data link on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
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