This summer my 2002 Chev Astro van turned over 350,000km. I’ve put 270K of those on it myself after buying it used in 2013 – for $7.500.
But what would someone like me know about the economics of driving?
Some electric car owners, especially those with earlier models, have been shocked to find out how much it costs to replace their batteries.
“I don’t understand why they make the battery so expensive when you have to change it,” Scarborough resident Phyllis Lau said, who owns a 2018 KIA Soul all-electric vehicle.
Lau’s electric SUV came with a warranty for the battery that covers 160,000 km, or eight years, whichever comes first.
The family said this year their vehicle clocked in more than 170,000 kilometres, which put them outside the warranty period when the battery failed.
When the vehicle wouldn’t work, Lau took it to her local dealership and was told it needed a battery replacement. With the new battery, labour and taxes, she said it would cost about $23,000.
Cute paperweight you got there.
$20,000 for a new battery??? Even at $2 per litre, that would give me 10,000 litres or 2500 US gallons of regular gas. 100,000 miles of driving with a lot of the new engines.
Thanks Justin. Thanks for F-All!!
Regular in Ottawa is about $1.60 a litre this week. $23K worth, in my Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with a city/hwy of 14 litres per 100 kilometers is just over 102,000 kilometers.
How much did they spend charging that car during that time? Add that in too for a real cost of operation.
Plus I’m not throwing 200 kilo’s of old battery in the dump.
Tell me again how it is good?
There was a photo of an actual invoice for a new Battery for a Chevy VOLT that made the rounds a month or 2 ago; $27,000 n change CAD.
This EV insanity is actually going to create a bigger issue with huge scrap yards of this utterly useless pile of Virtue signalling garbage… (and when one spontaneously ignites…then what.??)
Best to dump em in the Mariana Trench….right alongside of the morons who pushed this STOOPID shit.
Didnt know she’s gonna have to replace the battery some time after warranty is up. Didn’t know it’s gonna be expensive. Voted lib or dipper.
At least she got a few years yacking about how much she was doing for “climate change” and how great crossfit is.
Some people just gotta touch the hot stove to learn. Sympathy = 0.
3 crashes so far in responding to this. This story resonates with me. explanations took 20 minutes so far, that were lost in browser crashes. Chromebooks really, really, really suck.
I’m the first and 3rd owner of an Old Alero that finally died with over 210k on the odometer. Engine and drive train were golden. Suspension shot. Great car, no more parts (at a decent price) to keep her alive..
Why are you using a google product?
When composing long messages, try highlighting and saving your text, either temporarily on the clipboard or compose it in a word processor and copy and paste that here, then you won’t have to compose your message all over again, at least.
Try a Japanese car, they are only just getting going at 200k, they will go much farther if you can keep the rust off of them. Domestic cars just don’t have the same quality.. As an aside, I take care of an old 96 Achieva SC for a freind, it has to be the worst car ever, I call it the UnderAcheiva Shixxy Car, but it just won’t quit running! It’s falling apart, literally, I’ve replaced everything I could, so far, parts are getting scarce, but the darn thing starts on the first rotation, even after sitting for 2 years!
As for parts, try Rockauto, even w shipping it’s usually 50% of the price of parts up here.. There’s also Autopartsway, Partsavatar and Parts king (Edmonton) in Canada and many others, don’t forget the wrecking yards, common cars can be plentiful and many have new parts installed before the car was wrecked or something else gave out.
C_MINER
Suggestion
Buy yourself a GOOD used Macbook Pro 2012 Version. Built like a tank and there is a guy here in Calgary that can actually get them to accept the latest OS versions to run on them.
“APPLE Expert” on 14 st SW Calgary. And that he is. He likely has a few already to go..? Guys Name is Haider. He’s admonished me on several occasions to never sell the one I have…call’s it the absolute best machine they ever built.
Bought mine in 2012…still have it, still use it daily, best computer investment I ever made. Cpl upgrades: 500gB SSD and dbl’d RAM to 16.
Good fer another 5-7 years at least.
And I am not an APPLE “fanboy”…its the only bit of their tech I have ever owned.
“I don’t understand why they make the battery so expensive when you have to change it,”
Well cupcake, a big part of that is because your original battery was subsidized as part of the EV subsidy.
We paid for much of it.
Enjoy!
Buried lede: she thinks prices are arbitrary rather than reflective of the cost of manufacture.
If enough EV owners complain the government will make the taxpayers cover some of the cost.
We taxpayers already cover a huge chunk.
No shit.
Turns out her soul will be collected for the rubbish bin. Make of that what you will.
Kate, I can remember when you were considering that van. Glad to hear it’s worked out for you.
Kate,
I’m in Ontario and, through a dealer here, got a used 03 Astro panel in 2016 that the Saskatchewan RCMP use to have. So far I have only 131k on it…a part from being thirsty, they are great and tough as hell, I got lucky by the year of it being 03 because 03 to last prod year 05, they had rear disk brakes, larger 6 lug wheels and better handling features added, standard …I’m keeping mine till the end of days.
My everyday mobile is an 09 Chevy HHR, also the panel version, 5 speed manual (rare)…this one is very good on gas, averaging 7~8 liters/100 km. Great retro looking little car.
“I’m in Ontario and, through a dealer here, got a used 03 Astro panel in 2016 that the Saskatchewan RCMP use to have. So far I have only 131k on it…a part from being thirsty, they are great and tough as hell, I got lucky by the year of it being 03 because 03 to last prod year 05, they had rear disk brakes, larger 6 lug wheels and better handling features added, standard …I’m keeping mine till the end of days.”
2005 Astro Cargo here. Bought in 2010 for 15K, has (like yours) the best fuel injection/suspension/transmission/brakes/differential ever installed in their 20 year history. The only thing I would change, if I could, is the horrible 44-foot turning radius of the 03-04-05 versions; somehow, in switching to the 1/2 ton wheels and suspension, they botched that part.
Just yesterday a co-worker was singing the praise of battery cars. He doesn’t have one yet, but his friends love them. He kept mentioning the cost of gas and how his friends love their Teslas and would never “go back”.
I was polite and said I thought they could be okay in the city – I really think a hybrid is a much better option. Built-in Plan B.
He claimed a friend went across Canada with no problems. “All the charge stations are on Google Maps.” he said.
I got the word winter out, but he cut me off – he’s kinda arrogant.
I’ve recently put a buncha coin into my 13-year-old Forester – no longer have a work truck – so we’ll see who’s driving what in a couple years…when its 30 below.
Most of the cars I’ve owned have ended up with ~300,000 km before I bought a new one. The big question for electric car owners will be do they buy another one? It’s unlikely someone would put another $23,000 into a Kia with 160,000 km (electric or otherwise). But would they buy another electric Kia? That’s a new car every 8 years. And who would buy a used EV? That’s going to be a problem.
Steve
The real plan from both Trudeau and Biden is that won’t own a car, you’ll be using public transit.
Exactly Joe. It amuses me that people can’t see the forest for the trees and keep talking like ‘we are all’ going to have an EV. Nope.. ‘we will all’ be walking. If ‘we all’ are going to have EV’s you’d see the infrastructure being built… upgrades to our ancient electricity grid etc. There are no improvements planned or even spoken of. Even if it is possible to generate enough electricity for ‘us all’ to drive EV’s (which it is currently not), there is not the means to deliver it en masse! Only the elites will have a vehicle. You’d better buy a bicycle before they go extinct too.
Yes – and it starts with copper. Not enough for the cars, the new transmission lines, or new generation we would need. Humans have been mining it since before the bronze age. I doubt there are large abundant undiscovered sources. Plus, if you started today – how many years to get approval to even dig? And the same people wanting you to buy an EV would be the same people telling us we can’t mine.
Not to disagree, but I believe every line except the service lines to a house or business are aluminum.
Your point is still totally valid.
There is a huge amount of copper deposits still out there.
Had a 97 Astro. used for the business. Racked up 448K before donating to the Kidney car fund. Was still in good running order, although the sliding door and interior were getting shoddy. Running a 2015 City Promaster now, 265K going strong as I await the manufacture of a new one. Been waiting 7 months so far. Looking like a 23 model for me.
You gotta have a heart of stone not to laugh at the cretins who buy EVs. And they’re easy to spot in Fordtariowe… special “green” plates to identify woke idiots. The ugliest thing I’ve seen in that vein so far is an all electric Ford Mustang. Pathetic styling doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Apart from being ugly, true muscle car guys will stay away from an EV Mustang, same to the upcoming Dodge Challenger EV…yes, Chrysler is committing the same stupid business mistake. I can’t believe the marketing dept don’t see that the early EV buyers are moving away from them already and now the nightmare of battery replacements have just kicked in creating a huge wake-up call.
Yes why on earth would they produce EV versions of muscle cars? Gotta be the stupidest marketing move of all time. EV’s are just glorified golf carts so the only market that they might fit is the urban commuter market.
“I don’t understand why they make the battery so expensive when you have to change it,…”
I chuckled at that one. Yup, it’s just one of life’s enduring mysteries, hon. Where’s Amelia Earhart?…Shroud of Turin and why EV replacement batteries made from highly processed cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese and $150/hr. shop time costs me so darn much.
It’s a head scratcher.
Burton..
..why EV replacement batteries made from highly processed cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese & Graphite….CARBON..! and lots of it, as per a link posted here just a day ago or so. I’m curious as to how the overly Woke Climatards work/justify that around in their cranium..?
Not a selling point im assuming….LOL
Advance to around the 8 minute mark. Dr Martensen describes the elements required, the amounts, and the time period extractions of each to “support” the EV industry. Very eye opening and clearly demonstrates the fraud of Mass production of EVs.
The EV industry is a Ponzi scheme. Hang onto your ICE vehicle, despite the high prices we are paying for fuel, EVs will be even worse. It takes a special kind of stupid to justify buying a $90k vehicle, with monthly costs of $1500/mo, to save $300 of fuel on your paid off vehicle. Millenial mathematics.
https://youtu.be/VOiHA6NiqZU
Sounds like she has lived a life untouched by commercial reality , till now
Basically, the value of an off-warranty EV, with less than 200,000 kms, is close to zero. Economics and the Green narrative have got nothing to do with each other.
I suspect that the cost of a new battery has a lot to do with the fact that the old ones do not lend themselves to recycling. They’re more akin to nuclear waste which requires expensive long term storage.
A 2002 Astro Van…eh?
If it had the same V6 cyl engine (one in which GM lopped off the front 2cylinders from a V8)…? Then it’s an absolute GAS PIG….no.? (I had one as a company vehicle back in 200-2003). And if it got 15mpg I would have been surprised.
No offense Kate, but it was uncomfortable (I’m 5’10 & nowhere to put yer legs in that van), & very loud.
Next vehicle (company), was an 03 Pontiac Montana, with similar cargo capacity (once ya removed the rear seating), that van was 26 mpgs and one hell of a lot more comfortable as well….It’s still on the road today with just under 500,000kms. (Buddy of mine bought it).
“If it had the same V6 cyl engine (one in which GM lopped off the front 2cylinders from a V8)…? Then it’s an absolute GAS PIG….no.? (I had one as a company vehicle back in 200-2003). And if it got 15mpg I would have been surprised.”
All true, and the fact that they converted a 305/350 V8 into a V6 rather than designing a new V6 with the appropriate cylinder angle causes it to idle less than perfectly (the computer basically keeps it idling) as well as sucking lots of fuel.
What it does give you, though, is enough cubic inches to result in LOTS of torque….they are actually rated for towing, unlike your standard V6 front-wheel-drive minivan. That’s why trades people love them and are keeping them alive and running. Ceasing production of the Astro/Safari was GMs dumbest move ever.
Mine gets around 17 mpg, guessing. It’s better than the E350, which gets 14.
My favorite quote from the article in question is here and it is a bald faced lie.
“At the University of Toronto Electric Vehicle Research Centre, Director Olivier Trescases said complete battery failure is rare, and should not deter anyone from buying an electric vehicle as it is normal to have some batteries fail when a product is mass produced.”
If your battery can still hold charge, but not enough to do the required task, it has failed. So either Herr Director is ignorant or lying. All batteries, including conventional lead acid cells, get to the place where they can no longer do their job (like turning over the engine at a sufficient rate to allow ignition) and require replacement. Saying that “complete battery failure is rare” skirts the ever present problem of retaining sufficient charge. Gilding the lily, putting kind words on a cow pie, doesn’t change the stench of reality, you know, basic physics and chemistry.
University of Toronto…. .’nuff said. The only thing the UofT produces is brain-addled liberal voters.
Looks like its time to put some good 12Volts in the Dirtymax…sitting at 619,790kms
Thinking of going with Odyssey’s. Likely last longer than some lithium stuff..and who would put 12v Lithium batts in their vehicle anyway…?? When they could at some time ignite for zero reason..? No thanks – same goes for an EV – Junk in 6-7 yrs
Academics have no compunction about embellishment and even brazen lying if it is for “the cause” and enhances grant support.
As Bill Buckley said:
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
https://www.galaxymotors.net