Future Battery Upgrades

[Rbwalters]

I have said battery replacement/repair prices must come down to roughly the cost of an ICE motor replacement or rebuild to keep EVs from being considered “disposable”.
This is something a premium brand like Porsche is definitely going to avoid.
If the battery becomes a “poison pill” to ownership of a Porsche then resale values of their EVs will drop through the floor. A battery pack is no different than an engine. It’s a part. The market for replacement batteries outside of Porsche will flourish one way or another with 3rd party service providers already training to do so once the battery warranties expire.
The NTSB is actually very worried about the improper repair or replacement of EV batteries by DIY or uncertified repair facilities leading to increased risk of fire.
Porsche will need to incorporate the replacement & repair of their batteries the same as they do for their ICE products. The cost to rebuild a 911 motor by a 3rd party master Porsche rebuilder is $12-$15K (and worth every penny). The cost from Porsche is at least $25K to $35K (still worth it if the vehicle is in otherwise perfect condition).
The same will happen with the Taycan.
On this forum a dealer replaced a battery for just under $60K at full price parts & labor charged back to Porsche but that’s not what they can charge to a customer after the 8 years or 100K miles. They will have to sharpen their pencils to price their battery replacements using their certified engine rebuild replacement cost as a guide. If they try to tell customers the battery is $45K to $55K after 8 years then they would telling customers every one of their EVs are disposable.
No Porsche has ever been considered disposable which is why they are collected. There is absolutely no way Porsche lets this happen.
They will figure out what to do just as the 3rd party shops are gearing up to do when the only thing wrong with an EV in perfect condition only has a battery that needs replacement.
It’s infinitely easier to figure out how to replace an EV battery than to find a lower cost Porsche engine master rebuilder…

Gino,
Thanks for sharing this insight. I find it very unsettling that the car I just paid $250k for is considered "disposable." Aside from the money, and looking at the replacement cost, it just seems wrong that such a masterfully engineered machine should be disposed of just because it needs new batteries. Aside from the fuel that powers it, the technology and mechanical parts that move the machine and that provide the kind of driving experience Porsche owners demand, expect and ultimately love, has to be worth something? Is it really nothing more than a Bic lighter that has run out of butane? I don't think so.

I bought my first Porsche (1971 911 T Targa) out of someone's garage where it had been sitting for years, and basically rebuilt it, including an engine rebuild. I wish I still had that car. But I can't see the 150,000 or so Taycans built since 2020 just being disposed of, so I suspect the market will correct and provide a solution. And it sounds like you believe Porsche may have an interest in making this practical as a part of that solution as well. I hope you're right.

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[Gino]

Gino,
Thanks for sharing this insight. I find it very unsettling that the car I just paid $250k for is considered "disposable." Aside from the money, and looking at the replacement cost, it just seems wrong that such a masterfully engineered machine should be disposed of just because it needs new batteries. Aside from the fuel that powers it, the technology and mechanical parts that move the machine and that provide the kind of driving experience Porsche owners demand, expect and ultimately love, has to be worth something? Is it really nothing more than a Bic lighter that has run out of butane? I don't think so.

I bought my first Porsche (1971 911 T Targa) out of someone's garage where it had been sitting for years, and basically rebuilt it, including an engine rebuild. I wish I still had that car. But I can't see the 150,000 or so Taycans built since 2020 just being disposed of, so I suspect the market will correct and provide a solution. And it sounds like you believe Porsche may have an interest in making this practical as a part of that solution as well. I hope you're right.

You are exactly right.
There is no way Porsche corporate would ever allow the brand to be considered disposable by a battery.
The Taycan & other EVs Porsche decides to build are masterpieces of engineering & beauty no different than their ICE brothers.
There are some short sighted people which are so blinded by their dislike for EVs that they will speculate that battery prices will remain high forever making anyone who purchased one a sucker.
Unfortunately for these people who can’t appreciate both ICE & EV vehicles they will be proven wrong in a big way.
I love them both and glad we have both. It’s made me realize what is most important to me when I drive.
The old idea of zero to 60 & the quarter mile were actually not the two most important attributes of a vehicle.
Zero to 60 is important but who really cares about top speed in the quarter mile?
The instant acceleration of an EV has spoiled me on ICE vehicles a bit but the rumble & roar of an engine is also spine tingling in it’s own right which is why I will always choose to have both.
When it comes to everyday underpowered ICE vehicles an EV kicks an ICE vehicle’s ass in every way except range.
Chevrolet was the first to combine ICE & EV in the Corvette for pure performance rather than fuel efficiency & environmental benefit.
Will these vehicles become disposable as well because the battery cost is too high in the future? There was a time when turbo’s that failed cost 25% of the original cost of the vehicle after 50K miles or 4 years. These vehicles didn’t become disposable either. The prices to repair turbos dropped to what the market would accept. So too will batteries for EV. They’ll never be as cheap as a Duracell or Energizer battery but they will be reasonably priced by the service sector that wants to continue making money keeping EVs on the road, no different than they do for ICE vehicles…

 

[violuma]

No seriously, they are disposable appliances. Look at the deprecation and price of parts. Once they earn out and break, they will be chopped up and recycled/disposed.

I'm not paying $45k for a battery on one of these, not when the car is worth by that time probably $10-20k

What you say is perfectly reasonable and defensible, but I don't think it's appropriate to declare either (a) that people who place different weights and values are necessarily unreasonable, or that (b) in the future the various externalities of treating automobiles as "disposable appliances" won't get folded into the price of things.

Take tires as an example. Some jurisdictions impose fees to defray the environmental cost of disposal and recycling of used tires, which impact the market pricing. Sure, manufacturers have an incentive to make customers want to buy brand-new vehicles. But there is an unseen cost to that sort of planned obsolescence.

 

[Gino]

What you say is perfectly reasonable and defensible, but I don't think it's appropriate to declare either (a) that people who place different weights and values are necessarily unreasonable, or that (b) in the future the various externalities of treating automobiles as "disposable appliances" won't get folded into the price of things.

Take tires as an example. Some jurisdictions impose fees to defray the environmental cost of disposal and recycling of used tires, which impact the market pricing. Sure, manufacturers have an incentive to make customers want to buy brand-new vehicles. But there is an unseen cost to that sort of planned obsolescence.

That’s the beauty of free markets. We all have our opinions as to when it is no longer worth it to continue paying to maintain vehicles or not to and sell or trade in their unwanted vehicles.
There are many more used vehicle buyers/owners than new vehicle’s for sale. I have & will continue to have both. Sometimes it’s nice to buy the latest & greatest but sometimes buying a classic or a specific model that you’ve always wanted.
The fact that every vehicle is a product built at some level of volume which creates a market for all it’s parts including engines, transmissions & batteries.
The easiest one to address will be the batteries because it is a very common component which can be retrofitted.
The manufacturer of the batteries have a big incentive to continue selling their cells to the OEM as well as 3rd party shops & DIYers.
Just like Bosch sells their alternators to Mercedes as standard equipment but sells basically the same part to 3rd party shops and to AutoZone for the self repair crowd.
I was once told by Mercedes the alternator they were selling for $1200 was a special design for Mercedes and higher performance than the standard Bosch product being sold at AutoZone for around $300. I spoke to my contacts at Bosch to let them know what Mercedes service had said. His reply was simple.
“Yes, they have a design specific to Mercedes but it is not higher performance than the standard Bosch part. It has a shorter wiring harness rather than the longer one which can be used in any other vehicle with a Bosch alternator.” This is a trick OEMs use to get people that don’t know any better to buy the part at the crazy price for fear the standard Bosch part is somehow not as good or won’t fit.
Mercedes doesn’t make alternators but Bosch does.
The same goes for batteries. LG makes batteries for the Taycan and now Volta will also produce batteries for Porsche.
They have no intention of going out of business so they will sell different versions of these batteries to Porsche, to 3rd party shops and to AutoZone. They will all be the same quality but with slight differences which are absolutely meaningless to their operation. This is why batteries are just another part to be introduced into the system.
They all know (including Porsche) they have to continue to find ways to lower the part cost so they can charge the labor and margins to make money. They aren’t going to turn away customers because the repair cost can’t be justified to customers.
I’ve had enthusiasts completely rebuild cars, boats & planes that have sentimental value. Everything that was built once can always be rebuilt. It’s always just a matter of time and money.
What I might decide is worth the cost & time will be different for the next person & the next.
Porsche EVs like my Taycan will only die after they’ve been completely destroyed. If I have to spend $25K after it’s 10-15 years old and still looks perfect then so be it. Spending $25K to get another 10-15 years would be worth it to me…

 

[ze_shark]

Porsche has a solid track record of ensuring spare part availability. It is a strenuous assumption that they would leave Taycans behind without solutions.

That these solutions would keep up with technology advances and become de facto upgrades appears unrealistic. Architecture limitations are an essential starting point. Then the system validation burden would be immense, plus regulatory compliance, plus ...

This does not mean that it will make replacement packs nicely affordable. Operating a low volume spares business is not cheap at all. IF, somehow, cells & packs continue to become cheaper, it will be out of scale & volume, something that a spare part business precisely isn't. People tend to project broad notions that things get cheaper just because they do, but there is nothing automatic or magical about it.

The long term prospects of BEVs in general and Taycans in particular are not necessarily rosy. BEVs are still very recent. Early Model S are barely reaching the median car age now in super low volumes. Car residuals are still anchored in a 20y+/250kkm amortization model and there is simply no empirical evidence yet that BEVs will weather that test at scale.

Flip side is that the long term ownership prospects of any car post 1980's are problematic, as one can already experience with the vanishing support for certain 1990s car electronics, diagnostic and shop tools.

 

[Gino]

Porsche has a solid track record of ensuring spare part availability. It is a strenuous assumption that they would leave Taycans behind without solutions.

That these solutions would keep up with technology advances and become de facto upgrades appears unrealistic. Architecture limitations are an essential starting point. Then the system validation burden would be immense, plus regulatory compliance, plus ...

This does not mean that it will make replacement packs nicely affordable. Operating a low volume spares business is not cheap at all. IF, somehow, cells & packs continue to become cheaper, it will be out of scale & volume, something that a spare part business precisely isn't. People tend to project broad notions that things get cheaper just because they do, but there is nothing automatic or magical about it.

The long term prospects of BEVs in general and Taycans in particular are not necessarily rosy. BEVs are still very recent. Early Model S are barely reaching the median car age now in super low volumes. Car residuals are still anchored in a 20y+/250kkm amortization model and there is simply no empirical evidence yet that BEVs will weather that test at scale.

Flip side is that the long term ownership prospects of any car post 1980's are problematic, as one can already experience with the vanishing support for certain 1990s car electronics, diagnostic and shop tools.

The good thing about the HV batteries is that there will be economies of scale because every battery uses the one of a handful of basic battery cells which get assembled into custom battery packs for each car manufacturer & model. They build these cells with a design which is backward compatible to insure their production (as it matures) becomes better, safer & cheaper as volumes rise. They will rise. EVs are here to stay. Anyone that thinks they’re a fad does not understand what is driving the demand nor the increasing acceptance of EVs for their quiet effortless instant acceleration.
If anything Tesla is the most likely to have batteries which end up too expensive since they are the only ones that manufacture batteries for Teslas.
On a recent trip to China they have battery plants which make unauthorized copies of battery packs for Tesla’s which is not surprising so I wouldn’t be surprised if these batteries find their way to the US & Europe to compete with Tesla on price for battery repairs. Even Tesla does not want to leave money on the table so they will lower their battery replacement prices as well. No car maker wants their brand to be considered disposable, not even in China.
I’m not worried about EVs surviving and thriving. They will, it just takes time. By 2030 battery repairs & replacements will be reasonable. The same LG batteries in a $250K Taycan are in a $40K VW. The batteries are not going to cost more than 20-25% of the vehicle original sticker.
Even a 3 year old 2018 Tesla model S that sold for $120K cost $35K to replace all 5 battery packs for a limo company that put 300K miles on it.
I would expect this price to $25K to $30K at most by 2030 and likely less.
Each battery pack was $7K including installation and there were 5 packs.
If you can get 300K out of any vehicle that’s easily considered it’s useful life.
I have no idea what the flip side of that is. If you drive a Tesla 10-15K per year it is possible the battery packs could last 20-30 years and worst case you may only decide to replace one or two packs if you don’t need the range.
With an ICE Porsche you can’t buy 20% or 30% of an engine rebuild.
Even Porsche has stated their battery module design allows the ability to replace only the bad cells so it becomes a question of labor and range.
It will be very interesting to see how all the EV companies navigate the battery components but I trust the VW group will succeed in the end. They just need time…

 

[Caraholic]

I still think the broader picture is missed here. Right now we are hit two fold. One the price is astronomically high with no indi shops available for a lesser price. Secondly the taycans (lg pouches and cells) have a very known battery problem. It’s not if the battery will fail it’s when. This is a far more common then an engine needing to be replaced. This is a Porsche problem not an EV problem.

I am currently in for the second time for a battery pack. First time was a repair of 12 cell packs (5 month wait and a 42k repair cost). That was just 15 months ago and it is in again for another failed two modules. This time I am pushing for an entire new battery. Even then I don’t have a lot of hope for the new pack. I have a brand new 25 J1.2 for a loaner and the second time I step foot in the car I was treated with the yellow battery error. My battery is always charged to 80% by level two and has only been on a level three a handful of times. So the battery was well taken care of.

The 8 year battery warranty is not far from ending for some. I don’t see prices reducing to a reasonable level within that time. Lastly these battery repair or replacements do not extend the warranty. So if I had to pay that original 42k out of warranty the repair only lasted 15 months and I would be stuck having to pay for it again now.

 

[W1NGE]

Porsche has a solid track record of ensuring spare part availability. It is a strenuous assumption that they would leave Taycans behind without solutions.

That these solutions would keep up with technology advances and become de facto upgrades appears unrealistic. Architecture limitations are an essential starting point. Then the system validation burden would be immense, plus regulatory compliance, plus ...

This does not mean that it will make replacement packs nicely affordable. Operating a low volume spares business is not cheap at all. IF, somehow, cells & packs continue to become cheaper, it will be out of scale & volume, something that a spare part business precisely isn't. People tend to project broad notions that things get cheaper just because they do, but there is nothing automatic or magical about it.

The long term prospects of BEVs in general and Taycans in particular are not necessarily rosy. BEVs are still very recent. Early Model S are barely reaching the median car age now in super low volumes. Car residuals are still anchored in a 20y+/250kkm amortization model and there is simply no empirical evidence yet that BEVs will weather that test at scale.

Flip side is that the long term ownership prospects of any car post 1980's are problematic, as one can already experience with the vanishing support for certain 1990s car electronics, diagnostic and shop tools.

The J1.2 battery packs (different chemistry etc) are replacements for J1.1 (these batteries are no longer made) so the obsolescence piece has been addressed in terms of failures. What you won't get is the enhanced range with those packs - apparently some EU law prevents it (that's what my dealer Gold Tech told me).

 

[chun]

The J1.2 battery packs (different chemistry etc) are replacements for J1.1 (these batteries are no longer made) so the obsolescence piece has been addressed in terms of failures. What you won't get is the enhanced range with those packs - apparently some EU law prevents it (that's what my dealer Gold Tech told me).

They, Porsche, have not officially made any statement or communication on this. These are currently just assumptions based on an unconfirmed leak/s.
Porsche may decide to change their mind or to delay this until it is too late, as they have not made any commitments to this yet.

 

[Scandinavian]

Porsche are adopting a well known communication strategy!

 

[Gino]

The good thing about the HV batteries is that there will be economies of scale because every battery uses the one of a handful of basic battery cells which get assembled into custom battery packs for each car manufacturer & model. They build these cells with a design which is backward compatible to insure their production (as it matures) becomes better, safer & cheaper as volumes rise. They will rise. EVs are here to stay. Anyone that thinks they’re a fad does not understand what is driving the demand nor the increasing acceptance of EVs for their quiet effortless instant acceleration.
If anything Tesla is the most likely to have batteries which end up too expensive since they are the only ones that manufacture batteries for Teslas.
On a recent trip to China they have battery plants which make unauthorized copies of battery packs for Tesla’s which is not surprising so I wouldn’t be surprised if these batteries find their way to the US & Europe to compete with Tesla on price for battery repairs. Even Tesla does not want to leave money on the table so they will lower their battery replacement prices as well. No car maker wants their brand to be considered disposable, not even in China.
I’m not worried about EVs surviving and thriving. They will, it just takes time. By 2030 battery repairs & replacements will be reasonable. The same LG batteries in a $250K Taycan are in a $40K VW. The batteries are not going to cost more than 20-25% of the vehicle original sticker.
Even a 3 year old 2018 Tesla model S that sold for $120K cost $35K to replace all 5 battery packs for a limo company that put 300K miles on it.
I would expect this price to $25K to $30K at most by 2030 and likely less.
Each battery pack was $7K including installation and there were 5 packs.
If you can get 300K out of any vehicle that’s easily considered it’s useful life.
I have no idea what the flip side of that is. If you drive a Tesla 10-15K per year it is possible the battery packs could last 20-30 years and worst case you may only decide to replace one or two packs if you don’t need the range.
With an ICE Porsche you can’t buy 20% or 30% of an engine rebuild.
Even Porsche has stated their battery module design allows the ability to replace only the bad cells so it becomes a question of labor and range.
It will be very interesting to see how all the EV companies navigate the battery components but I trust the VW group will succeed in the end. They just need time…

Your concerns are well placed. It is Porsche’s problem but Porsche will have to fix it with LG or switch to Volta before they burn all the early adopters of it’s EVs by trying to kick the can down the road long enough to save on warranty recalls.
This would be penny wise & pound foolish if they leave Porsche EV customers with no option but a $42K to $57K battery replacement.
They surely realize what this would do to their brand. Some will say they should cut their losses and just go back to making ICE vehicles only but that is an unwise position for them to take when other brands succeed with EVs but Porsche failed & ran back to ICE.
This would be terrible for the brand and turn them into a boutique car company. The investors won’t tolerate this, I guarantee you.
There is a tremendous amount of pressure on Porsche to engineer their way out of this. I’m confident they will get it done by 2028 when most of the early Taycan’s go out of warranty on time.
Until then Porsche is getting buried on the cost & logistics to replace batteries but that’s still better than an across the board recall which they don’t have the resources to execute without pissing every EV customer off.
I’m trying to have faith but I also have my faith tempered with a certain level of fear as well. I won’t bet the farm on them coming out of this where EV customers are completely unharmed but I would bet a few cows & chickens…

 

[Travis]

I see these high prices repeated over and over again and don’t understand where these originate from. A quick search shows retail price from Porsche is $26,000 for a 100% new pack. Packs with under 5,000 miles with warranty are available for $3,000 from online retailers. It seems the value quoted on warrantied work is being misstated as retail price which is not one and the same. I believe if I keep my Taycan for as long as it takes for my battery to wear out, I can find a reasonable replacement that is appropriate for a used car, and have it installed for under $7500. That is today, should only get cheaper. Not sure what all the fuss is about. Clearly Porsche is not trying to walk away or dodge potential battery issues as they have an open recall on all batteries, they are trying to understand the issue, and should determine next appropriate step. If the batteries are defective and unsafe, the 8 yr warranty will not come in to play. If the battery simply fails outside of 8 yrs, that’s reasonable as that is all it was guaranteed to last, it is a consumable item with a finite life. Not sure what the concern is regarding battery. Do you know anyone whose battery failed in under 8 yrs that Porsche did not provide support, do you know anyone that paid $50k+ out of pocket, do you know a single person who’s battery caught fire, etc. Lots of unfounded concern.

 

[Gino]

I see these high prices repeated over and over again and don’t understand where these originate from. A quick search shows retail price from Porsche is $26,000 for a 100% new pack. Packs with under 5,000 miles with warranty are available for $3,000 from online retailers. It seems the value quoted on warrantied work is being misstated as retail price which is not one and the same. I believe if I keep my Taycan for as long as it takes for my battery to wear out, I can find a reasonable replacement that is appropriate for a used car, and have it installed for under $7500. That is today, should only get cheaper. Not sure what all the fuss is about. Clearly Porsche is not trying to walk away or dodge potential battery issues as they have an open recall on all batteries, they are trying to understand the issue, and should determine next appropriate step. If the batteries are defective and unsafe, the 8 yr warranty will not come in to play. If the battery simply fails outside of 8 yrs, that’s reasonable as that is all it was guaranteed to last, it is a consumable item with a finite life. Not sure what the concern is regarding battery. Do you know anyone whose battery failed in under 8 yrs that Porsche did not provide support, do you know anyone that paid $50k+ out of pocket, do you know a single person who’s battery caught fire, etc. Lots of unfounded concern.

I was told by my dealer the current cost of a full battery replacement requires 10-12 hours to remove the battery pack & 10-12 hours to put a new one in and retest the vehicle. That ends up being roughly $7K in labor so the total today is likely $33K for a complete standard battery pack replacement.
When I showed him the thread for this forum with the warranty replacement showing $57K he said, what a dealership service center charges back to Porsche corporate is not what a customer would be charged out of warranty. This makes perfect sense.
If after 8 years I need to replace my battery packs (all of them) and it costs me $33K, worst case scenario, then I don’t feel so bad.
That is getting close to the cost of a fully rebuilt Porsche ICE motor.
The one thing he did say is that the idea Porsche first offered to customers when they first started selling the Taycan was that they could replace individual battery cells/pouches that fail or one of 13 or so modules with multiple cells in each module.
He said Porsche may decide to only replace the cells or modules which fail but he said it would not be cost effective for a customer to do this because the cost to remove the entire battery tray and put it back still will be in the $7K range. It would be nuts to go to all that trouble and not replace the entire pack or at least 50% of the modules for $13K plus $7K labor totaling $20K which could be considered reasonable. He did say he assumed the battery warranty would be the same as an ICE motor replacement outside of warranty which is 2 year unlimited miles but I asked him how Porsche will treat batteries in an EV. Two years for a $33K battery pack is not very good since a mechanical part or system is going to last many years longer once the infant mortality of the part has been eliminated after 2 years of no issues. Batteries are not going to have the same failure rate as mechanical parts so it does add risk.

Maybe some in the used market may do this to get the range high enough to sell the vehicle rather than replace the entire tray with all the modules.

Either way it does appear Porsche is still navigating through all these battery concerns and I expect it will get better and better as we move forward.

 

[Travis]

There are currently brand new modules (we have 33 total) for sale on online for $150. Sure there is labor but Porsche labor vs third party cost would be much different. My point is that over time, third party shops will become much much more proficient at replacing modules in lieu of entire packs as the number of BEVs grows. I think it is entirely more likely that battery repair to get another 8 yrs from a Taycan could be as low as $3,000 and as high as $10,000. To me if on average we can extend life another 8 yrs for $5,000 than that’s a phenomenal situation. Lots of assumptions and hopeful thinking here but the market will dictate what happens. I can only see improvement though.

 

[Gino]

Your concerns are well placed. It is Porsche’s problem but Porsche will have to fix it with LG or switch to Volta before they burn all the early adopters of it’s EVs by trying to kick the can down the road long enough to save on warranty recalls.
This would be penny wise & pound foolish if they leave Porsche EV customers with no option but a $42K to $57K battery replacement.
They surely realize what this would do to their brand. Some will say they should cut their losses and just go back to making ICE vehicles only but that is an unwise position for them to take when other brands succeed with EVs but Porsche failed & ran back to ICE.
This would be terrible for the brand and turn them into a boutique car company. The investors won’t tolerate this, I guarantee you.
There is a tremendous amount of pressure on Porsche to engineer their way out of this. I’m confident they will get it done by 2028 when most of the early Taycan’s go out of warranty on time.
Until then Porsche is getting buried on the cost & logistics to replace batteries but that’s still better than an across the board recall which they don’t have the resources to execute without pissing every EV customer off.
I’m trying to have faith but I also have my faith tempered with a certain level of fear as well. I won’t bet the farm on them coming out of this where EV customers are completely unharmed but I would bet a few cows & chickens…

There are currently brand new modules (we have 33 total) for sale on online for $150. Sure there is labor but Porsche labor vs third party cost would be much different. My point is that over time, third party shops will become much much more proficient at replacing modules in lieu of entire packs as the number of BEVs grows. I think it is entirely more likely that battery repair to get another 8 yrs from a Taycan could be as low as $3,000 and as high as $10,000. To me if on average we can extend life another 8 yrs for $5,000 than that’s a phenomenal situation. Lots of assumptions and hopeful thinking here but the market will dictate what happens. I can only see improvement though.

Yes, my transmission guy is training to do EV battery replacements as well as electric motor/transmission replacements in EVs under “Right to Repair laws in the US. All EV manufacturers will be under pressure by these 3rd parties who will remove & replace a battery pack for far less than $7K. It’s just a matter of time.
Again, it’s no different than getting a remanufactured Porsche Boxster motor for $25K from the dealer & my local Porsche (independent) master engine/transmission rebuilder charging $12K parts & labor all in.
It will get better & better as the EV market matures.
The dealer quoted me $17K minimum for a 2006 Sprinter automatic transmission with a 2 year 12,000 mile warranty & I used my transmission guy to do it for $6500 with a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty.
I’m not worried about EV battery replacement options when my warranty expires in 2030. By that time I’ll have numerous choices.
Who knows, maybe I could get the latest high power density battery technology at that time to give me 600 miles range for $10K from a 3rd party shop. I might do it even if my battery is fine but with only 200 miles range I would jump at increasing my range by 300% for $10K…

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