Car Dealerships are Filling Up with Cars Again

When people realize that their batteries die in less than 10 years and the new battery pack is $20,000.... the race to EVs will be done and finished. I thought a guy blow up his Tesla a few years ago when he found out how much his replacement batteries were going to cost him? And I certainly do NOT expect that any other EV car maker's batteries are any cheaper than Tesla's..

 

Federal law on EV and hybrid battery (and unique hybrid components) minimum warranties: 8 years, 100K warranty. California: 10 years, 150K miles.

Other than the Nissan Leaf, battery failures within the warranty period are uncommon.

 

The other manufacturers learned from the Leaf to do liquid cooling of the batteries. Cold isn’t a problem for them; they simply become less efficient ie t while cold. Too high of heat will harm the batteries though and Nissan didn’t institute any cooling and then only did air cooling starting in 2019.

 

Nissan cheaped out. They "cool" the high voltage battery by outside air blowing across the exterior of the battery case. My Ford hybrid has a separate AC evaporator in the rear to cool it's big battery. The computer turns it on and off as needed, regardless of whether or not I have the cabin AC system on. My Lexus hybrid draws in cabin area to cool it's big battery based on the theory that batteries like to be at the same temperature people do. I keep the cabin of the Lexus a couple of degrees cooler to help cool the battery as it's system, while less complicated, doesn't do as good a job of cooling.

Another thing to note in hybrids is that the computer only allows one to use a relatively small amount of the available power in order to extend battery life. The Ford, for example keeps the battery charge level between 40 and 60%. I have the equipment to access the computer to command the car to rebalancre the battery cells. That temporarily charges them to 100%, but then drops the voltage back down to operational levels.