Changing the battery in an electric car

One of the most important parts of an electric car is the battery, and also the most expensive component.

The battery of an electric car has an estimated life of between 150,000 and 200,000 kilometers, which is about 8 years and 3,000 charge cycles; but it also varies a lot with the care that is given to the battery and with the type of recharges that we make.

But ultimately the battery is something expensive and that has a very important importance in the overall maintenance of the electric car.

There is still little experience and manufacturers generally have only good words and few guarantees on their batteries. And in the event that it is necessary to change it, the owner of the car may have a problem.

I make this reflection because in the media (on Twitter and Gizmodo) we have seen a video of a battery change in China for the modest price of 7 dollars, and nobody believes that. Certainly not me.

On the other hand, the opposite news has also appeared, that of a person in Finland who had a Tesla model S to which he had to change the battery and they asked him for $ 22,600 to do it (almost half the price of the new car), and that person decided to set fire to the car and publish it on the networks (Gizmodo and others).

I take all this type of news with due caution, because social networks tend to exaggerate. But one thing is very clear: that everyone who buys an electric car should be very clear about the cost of changing its battery and have a written guarantee.

The “problem” with electric car batteries is that they are not a standard subset that can be changed from one car to another, but rather that they are specific to each model. And if a car can last us more than 20 years, we should have the “guarantee” that we can change our battery when we need it.

In addition, the technology of electric car batteries is changing and solid state batteries with higher charging capacity and therefore more autonomy is being announced. It would be unfortunate to have an electric car and that after 8 years its battery becomes obsolete and that when we have to change it they do not give us a new, more current model.

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems is the lack of standardization. If the batteries of electric cars had a series of standard sizes as do the batteries that we use in our electronic devices, the change would be something very simple and much cheaper.

How long will it take for electric car manufacturers to agree and lower the cost of the most important part of their vehicle?

Or maybe it is that they are not interested and prefer to have all of us in their hands?