If you own a vehicle that is not cheap and you can not afford to fix it something falls… you spend too much money on your vehicle.
edit: added 10 years
That would be the common thinking for people that budget when buying cars.
The difference is the cost to replace the battery pack on EVs, in this case Tesla may charge $15,000-25,000 to replace.
That is a major charge for a big component to replace, within 10 years of owning car when talking about vehicles.
Soon all electrical vehicles will have this same issue. You’ll be spending $10K every 7-10 years replacing the battery, but you won’t replace the vehicle itself.
You’ll be spending $10K every 7-10 years replacing the battery
They already last reliably more than ten years and should keep improving.
but you won’t replace the vehicle itself.
Why not? I just replaced my 7 year old vehicle with an EV. When I drove it again, it was really noticeable how the seats were worn, suspension loosened up, the rattles and squeaks, the dings and mars. The rest of the car ages too, plus technology keeps improving, so why would you expect people to keep EVs longer than they currently keep their vehicle?
To add to it, there will also be companies that will buy the used battery, so the outset cost of a new one won’t be as painful.
For example, saw a good one that buys used car batteries and stacks them to make grid batteries.
The Model Y uses a structural battery pack that can’t be replaced. It forces the car to be recycled instead of repaired.
That’s a consumer choice I suggest you don’t make.
Which is why BEVs aren’t the future.
If we’re updating the autodrive hardware that often, it might be worth it to up cycle every few generations. But one or two battery replacements might be worth it.
