Graham Hill Reveals The Actual Cost Of EV Battery Packs

Friday, 26. August 2011

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We know that the cost of the battery pack that will be fitted to the new electric vehicles will be more than a pack of 12 Duracell AA’s but up until now we have all been speculating as to the true cost. £1,000, £5,000 or even £10,000? If you thought the same you would be wrong because Nissan have revealed that the cost of the replacement pack that will be fitted into their Leaf will cost a staggering £19,392. This is made up of 48 modules costing £404 each.

This cost is higher than the list price of similarly sized cars such as the Golf Blue Motion. To make matters worse Nissan has revealed that the capacity will drop by 20% over 5 years, dropping the range from 100 miles to 80 miles.

How staggering is that? As though to ease the pain a spokeswoman for Nissan said that as the battery deteriorated it is unlikely that all 48 modules would need to be replaced at once so the running costs for motorists wouldn’t be so great.

That’s alright then! Although they also revealed that the 5 year warranty on the battery pack does not include degradation. Nissan also said that the costs would reduce considerably in 2013 when their Sunderland plant will start to produce 500,000 modules per annum. By Graham Hill