After posting a quote from a car dealership indicating that it would cost close to $30,000 to replace the battery in his electric vehicle, a Florida man went viral.
On August 25, 2022, a picture that appeared to be a repair estimate or invoice for the parts and labor needed for a Chevy Volt’s hybrid car battery replacement appeared on Twitter.
Rob O’Donnell who posted on Twitter, obtained it from Roger Dean Chevrolet in Cape Coral, The quote takes into account the price of the battery (close to $27,000), the labor cost ($1,200), and the repair’s taxes (more than $1,700) and began to circulate on social media.
“Bet that Chevy Volt sounded like a good idea at first,” O’Donnell captioned the post.
Bet that Chevy Volt sounded like a good idea at first. pic.twitter.com/q57U0gZowU
— Rob O’Donnell (@odonnell_r) August 25, 2022
However, the dealership acknowledged the quote and pointed out that it was for a Chevrolet Volt, which has higher costs because of its outdated technology.
In an attempt to set the record straight, Roger Dean Chevrolet commented on Facebook, “This is an estimate for a 12-year-old vehicle out of warranty and for a battery that is extremely hard to get, due to the older technology of the 12-year-old vehicle, The dealership does not set battery prices.”
Still, this price was far from the standard cost of a hybrid car battery replacement. O’Donnell would have to spend a total of $29,842.15 to have his 2012 Chevrolet Volt’s battery replaced. The car itself is worth far less.
The dealership, however, also supported electric automobiles, asserting that the cost of replacing O’Donnell’s battery was excessive because the vehicle was ten years old.
“In the newer EV or EUV vehicles with newer technology the batteries do cost less,” the dealership said. “Think of it like big screen TVs. Remember when the first big screen came out, they were very expensive, and as the technology advanced the prices became better.”
The automobile website Edmunds estimates that the price of a 2012 Volt will range from $7,999 to $17,590. The Chevrolet Bolt, which starts at $25,000, has since taken the position of the Volt.
Two batteries are required for the Volt and other hybrid vehicles to operate. The hybrid battery was the more expensive component that was quoted for replacement. The estimate stated that the hybrid battery would cost $26,853.99 before labor and other expenses.
Hybrid batteries currently range in price from $2,000 to $8,000 and have a lifespan of up to 15 years or between 100,000 and 150,000 kilometers. In hybrid vehicles, the electronics are powered by a different, more common battery. It usually costs a lot less.
However, Recurrent Auto noted that when labor and other costs are taken into account, the price to replace an EV battery for some vehicle models can still exceed $20,000.
WBVH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida, visited a charging station and spoke with a man they only named “Ian” in order to see how electric vehicle users felt about the story of the expensive battery.
The man said that “Thirty thousand dollars is a lot to fix anything on a car, especially when the car itself could be, like, worth less than that.”
Things have changed in the EV market, Ian, who leases a Bolt, said:
“As far as electric cars go, they’re being made in better ways now,” he said, “I feel like electric vehicle space is innovating a lot. It’s moving on past the initial, like, if something goes wrong with your battery, you hit a rock or something and it messes up your battery you need to spend the entire amount you spent on your car to fix it.”
Adding that, “I’m like ‘well, OK that’s gotta suck for that person’, I think now that might not be as much of an issue for other people with newer cars.”
Watch it here: Youtube/ NBC News
Sources: westernjournal, recurrentauto, edmunds
