6 Comments

Mike, your KIA service pricing is for

BG services and fluids! That makes a big price differential

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There is hope for older hybrid vehicles in that lithium iron phosphate battery upgrades and repair at the individual cell level are now available! Repairing or upgrading the battery on an old hybrid before selling it (or keeping it) should mire than offset the decline in value mentioned above. Individual cell repair is also available which means that replacing the entire battery is not always necessary. Hybrid owners should know about the easy maintenance trick of cleaning the air filter for the hybrid battery cooling fan. Doing this regularly should really help prolong the life of a hybrid battery. Or, one could buy an otherwise good hybrid with a bad battery for a good price and replace the battery.

https://www.theautopian.com/toyota-prius-owners-are-swapping-tired-old-batteries-for-lithium-ion-ones-and-seeing-big-gains/

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What is missing in the above discussion is the fossil fuel consumption used to produce the electricity.

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I found a study that detailed how much fuel was burned and pollution was created by a power plant needing to provide electricity to charge EV batteries. And it was less than the equivalent amount gasoline needed to drive the same miles plus extra pollution from the gas/diesel vehicle. Now I just did a casual read, but I really should take a deep dive to see if this is actually true. Doug Modlin and I could both study this report and compare notes.

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The other problem with evs is the reluctance of people to buy a used ev with more than 100K miles on it. The real life value drops precipitously the farther you go beyond 100K miles. People don't want to deal with replacing a battery in an ev. I had a 2005 Prius that I put 169K miles on & tried to sell it in 2011. It was in great condition, but no one wanted to deal with the perceived need for a battery change in the near future. I did finally sell it, but for far less than what it was really worth.

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I should contact a few EV battery shops and get actual prices for battery repair and replacement. The web is full of horror stories on the cost of EV battery replacement and I have no idea what is true and what is doomsaying. But it is a valid concern that needs to be addressed.

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