One of the main concerns I have when looking at whether I should buy an electric car is the range degradation. I drive a hell of a lot in my prius and I put about 190,000 miles on it in the last 6 years. But when I’m looking at the price of a replacement tesla battery, considering I would want to buy a used Tesla, I’m looking at prices from $14-$20,000, whereas extrapolating the math from the 18650 cells I’m buying to build an EBike battery, the cells themselves for a Tesla battery really shouldn’t be more than 5- $6000. (I know Tesla has moved away from 18650 but I think my point of lithium ion cells cost is valid)
Is this 8,000 to $15,000 discrepancy just a function of getting work done by a dealership? In the same way I can replace my own catalytic converter for a few hundred bucks but the shop will charge me two grand? It just really seems like the absolute biggest factor in this consideration; I could buy multiple used Priuses for the same cost if a battery replacement costs me $20,000, but if it costs me $6,000 the math checks out, and I’m going electric ! Obviously the next biggest part of this is I don’t think you can even get a non Tesla shop to install a battery as if any modifications are discovered by Tesla, they’ll disable fast charging! Which completely kills my ability to make the trips I usually make.
Any insight or links to a previous thread is much appreciated!