Battery Replacement

Not sure what you want?

Congratulations on your frugality.

You should of had it replaced under warranty a few miles back(17k).....In any case is this price for the new improved aftermarket battery pack, or the original oem?

"As of June 2008 in the U.S., according to Honda, there are fewer than 200 battery failures beyond warranty coverage out of more than 100,000 hybrids sold.^[32] By March 2013, most of the 2000-2006 Insight hybrids have had their batteries replaced up to three times under warranty by Honda, a failure rate that has increased logarithmically with the passage of time.

As of 1 June 2008, the replacement battery costs US$1,968 and installation is around US$900.^[32]

In 2010, Multiple aftermarket large capacity replacement NiMH battery packs have become available for the first generation Insight, including YABO Power.^[33] BumbleBee Batteries^[34] and Hybrid ReVolt. ^[35] A couple of others have come and gone, with a few more potentially in the pipeline."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight

"NEW 8 Amp Hour IMA Battery w/ 2 Year Warranty

$1,895.00

Wow just your bad luck. I was looking at used cars a few months ago and saw one at the dealer that had over 200000 on the battery. Didn't buy it though, it looked really tired.

August, you bought the wrong car! The Toyota Prius has had much better luck with longer battery life. I've seen them with 200K miles and still working fine. Many Prius' are taxi cabs, due to the high gas mileage and reliability.

My recommendation is to consider the cost of a replacement battery vs how long the car will last. If it makes sense, then I would get a new battery. If not, you can buy a used 2000 Corolla for about $3K and it will probably last longer than the Insight. Sure, gas mileage will be lower, but is the difference that large? Run a spreadsheet and you'll find out that the difference isn't as much as you think.

On-line auction sites (names withheld) are just fabulous for solving problems like this. Advertise the vehicle, and in a few days someone will pay money to take the thing away.

or start with out a battery

Model T Ford.

Dear Mr.AugustBush,

What do you want to say.? or what do you want to know.?

DHAYANANDHAN.S

I have considered buying a hybrid vehicle for a while,however, my thoughts were. am I buying a battery or a vehicle? If the battery is has seen its life span, the battery is very expensive to replace. Without the battery the vehicle is useless, and possibly of no value. (No energy source = motor drive).

I read recently that electric powered vehicle owners could swap out a battery when depleted at service stations along highways. This meant they would loose their new battery to a charging station and 'buying in' a recharged replacement battery to continue their journey. (A pilot program I understand was set up in Italy, with a fully automated system where a vehicle owner drove in to a station, the battery swapped out for a charged battery).

This meant your new battery, assuming you have a new vehicle with a new battery, was swapped for a 2nd hand charged battery. I understand this caused controversy for vehicle owners as they had bough new vehicles with new batteries and on depletion of the charge, lost their new batteries for 2nd hand batteries at each service station they changed for fully charged batteries.

So, the questions I have and hope for understanding, if you have an electric vehicle, what are you buying, a battery or a vehicle?

What determines, and how is the trade in value determined on electric vehicles if the battery has reached its working life? Without a battery the vehicle is useless.

If one does have a 2nd hand battery in the vehicle, does this affect the trade in value of the vehicle?

If you say you have obtained the mileages on your cars to date, what are your vehicles worth as trade in values? Is the battery price worth more than the vehicle? I.e. without the battery what is your Honda vehicle valued at? And what have been your service costs for the duration of owning the vehicle?

I genuinely interested in knowing soem details and facts about hybrid and electric vehicles from owners of them.

IQ, Be careful confusing Hybrids with EV's. Hybrids run on gas or electric, where EV's are electric only.

If a hybrid has a dead battery, it will still run, but the check engine light will trigger. The car was designed to switch between gas and electric, so if the battery won't recharge, the car will not be running efficiently. It may also stress some of the parts and cause further damage.

An EV with no battery still has value. The parts can be used, hence there is value. Someone can also buy one and replace the battery pack. Finally, someone can have a smashed car and use the battery from it.

Your question about trade in value can be correlated to a regular gas powered car. Let's take a BMW 7 series as an example. These cars typically go about 80K miles before they start to have a lot of problems. Since this is known in the industry, a BMW 7 series with over 80K miles isn't worth much (relatively), as it's exceeded the amount of time the car will be troublefree. An EV will be about the same.

In a Swapping battery scheme, you are supposed to have paid much less for the original battery. The car that is designed to swap batteries is supposed to cost less because the battery is supposed to be on hire to the owner for such a scheme to be viable.

I have asked the originator of the question/statement to offer costs, But if you have any ideas of cost, I should be interested.

I just cat see it being worth while, perhaps to the environment perhaps, but as daily used vehicle for long and short distances, I cant seem to justify the use or costs, when compared to diesel or petrol engine vehicle. Perhaps in town driving and short hops or for gong shopping in but the cost of electric, batteries and the not so great distance from a full charge, does not quite make it cost effective.

I know in Sweden they run some electric bus's and they can be partially charged in about 7 minutes, but I am told it is not efficient and costly. I still think hydrogen cells are a better option. Adelaide in Au runs hydrogen cell buses, Sydney runs LPG buses, and they are clean, efficient and cheap to run, and free to use in the city. A lot of taxis in Au run LPG due to petrol prices. The UK seems to have moved away from LPG vehicles.

I know that Renault offers battery rental schemes for their TWIZE models. You pay a monthly rental cost for a contract defined by the number of miles (or km) per year that you expect to travel. They are responsable for the batteries. If you want to know the details, check their web site by searching Renault electric vehicules.

I read somewhere that they want to extend the service to bigger vehicules than the TWIZE which is more like for a city car or short trips single or twin passenger vehicule.

The idea of hiring the batteries and replacing them with charged ones with a garanteed charge level of 75% is reasonable and good economy. You do not need to invest into a battery that is expensive and will need replacement when its capacity has reduced significantly. (??)

Battery powered cars, the battery replacement at around 5 years (it does happen) can cost more than the car is worth I am told.....seen several posts online about this.....

Hybrid car batteries are smaller and cheaper.....

I still drive a diesel. No hybrid. No problems.

^?

So what was the total cost of ownership comparison between the Honda and the other vehicles you mentioned? I'll bet you spent a lot in fuel for those others over their lifetime! The cost of a new battery may not be that bad in comparison.