But if the base price is 60k and a replacement battery costs something like 30 even used cars are going to be too expensive. You’re thinking like they’re ICE cars where you might be able to buy an old shitbox for 5k and maybe rebuild the engine for the same amount.
I hardly see that happening with these smartphone cars. Lithium battery s would need to get really cheap and a lot of consumer protection laws would have to be passed to keep manufacturers from charging whatever they want for replacing them like they do now.
Also EV batteries have a life expectancy of 200k miles. Most people consider 100k to be a cars retirement age, so I think the battery problem isn’t as big of an issue as we think. Your car is statistically likely to be worn down or wrecked by that amount of mileage.
But if the base price is 60k and a replacement battery costs something like 30 even used cars are going to be too expensive. You’re thinking like they’re ICE cars where you might be able to buy an old shitbox for 5k and maybe rebuild the engine for the same amount.
I hardly see that happening with these smartphone cars. Lithium battery s would need to get really cheap and a lot of consumer protection laws would have to be passed to keep manufacturers from charging whatever they want for replacing them like they do now.
Don’t buy a 60k vehicle. Batteries are more like 15k installed. Those reports of 30k batteries are edge cases.
Also EV batteries have a life expectancy of 200k miles. Most people consider 100k to be a cars retirement age, so I think the battery problem isn’t as big of an issue as we think. Your car is statistically likely to be worn down or wrecked by that amount of mileage.