Eschew Obfuscation: Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile

Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile

Max Dunn — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:44:00 -0800

When companies talk about electric vehicles costing pennies per mile in electricity costs to operate, they are being truthful. However, with current battery costs and lifetimes, the battery replacement cost in an electric vehicle will be more than the electricity cost. Let’s look more closely at this.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:15:46 -0700

Toyota is contracting with BatteryMD to provide replacement batteries for the RAV4-EV. The cost is supposedly $15,000.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:49:09 -0700

There is now a company that is providing replacement batteries for the RAV4-EV and charges $14,000, so this close to the $12,000 cost I estimated above.

Lion Electric Vehicle Lithium Upgrade

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:11:10 -0700

Another indication that the latest batteries should last 10 years and 150,000 miles comes from a report in the April 2008 edition of Forbes. This article reported that GM engineers are testing lithium-ion batteries to prove that they can meet this standard for the Chevrolet Volt.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:28:11 -0800

Here is another data point on RAV4-EV batteries. Marcos Peixoto reported on the RAV4-EV mailing list that:

There are only 4 units of our EV95 traction batteries in stock, nationwide. 1 in Chicago and 3 at a distribution center. The Toyota P/N is G9280-42012. The list price is around $4,700 for each.

This $4,700 price is probably what Toyota was charging back when they were making the RAV4-EV and reflected their cost back then, even though this is a lot lower than we can get today.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Ajit

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:06:53 -0800

Well, this is just sad news. I have been under the impression that we’d get to save the world more now at the eve of electric cars.