Wow, now that's pricey..

[Drago]

8 year warranty on the battery, who knows a price then a lot less one would hope.

Assuming Slaguar are about in 8 years to honour it.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Car insurance is a foreign country to me, so I guess the insurance company, having written the car off, and paid the costs, owns it, fixes it and sells it on to reduce losses?

Surely you just unscrew the flap at the bottom and put the new battery in, making sure you put the flat end to the spring.

Yeah, but you know how it is: you can never find the right screwdriver, then the little screws go pinging off over the floor and the ribbony thing isn't behind the battery so you have to get a knife from the kitchen... it's not as easy as you say @Beebo.

 

[Beebo]

In all seriousness, is it hard to change the battery, i would have thought it would be easy, no moving parts, just lift in and out?

 

[Broadside]

In all seriousness, is it hard to change the battery, i would have thought it would be easy, no moving parts, just lift in and out?

You would think so, but have you tried changing a simple headlight bulb on a modern car recently? On mine you have to remove the entire lighting unit from the car to do it!

I expect the 200kg+ of batteries are well secured and hemmed in by all sorts of bodywork and trim.

 

[Levo-Lon]

In all seriousness, is it hard to change the battery, i would have thought it would be easy, no moving parts, just lift in and out?

Its paying for it that's hard

 

[gbb]

In all seriousness, is it hard to change the battery, i would have thought it would be easy, no moving parts, just lift in and out?

I remember watching a YT video of people buying write off Teslas in the States and it warned to watch for the car sitting high, apparently you could buy unseen...and not realise someones furtively had the battery pack off. Which infers...they can be removed without it being obvious, in Tesla cars if nothing else. Who knows, perhaps most cars are the same.

 

[screenman]

In my trade you have to be very careful where you prod with your rod when working on electric vehicles. Ideally they should be powered down completely.

 

[keithmac]

In all seriousness, is it hard to change the battery, i would have thought it would be easy, no moving parts, just lift in and out?

Mine's just a "normal" car, but even after taking a stupid amount of stuff out of the engine bay to fit it I then had to connect the diagnostics to reset the Battery Management System in the BCM..

No doubt there will be a subframe or similar in the way, they aren't built to be worked on normally.

 

[keithmac]

In my trade you have to be very careful where you prod with your rod when working on electric vehicles. Ideally they should be powered down completely.

I wonder what training the Emergency Services get regarding EV's?. Lithium batteries are terrible if they short out and self ignite, the quantity in a "proper" EV doesn't bare thinking about.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Pop down Maplins and get a few AAs and some cases...

 

[screenman]

I wonder what training the Emergency Services get regarding EV's?. Lithium batteries are terrible if they short out and self ignite, the quantity in a "proper" EV doesn't bare thinking about.

My youngest is a firefighter, he has had training on them, not sure how much but I will certainly ask next time I see him.

 

[fossyant]

I was thinking about a hybrid as a next car, but as I like fixing them myself, having many volts of zappy stuff around, might not be a good idea, even for general oil changes etc ?

 

[Drago]

Aye, a Trumpton get training in handling EVs, LPG, etc. The feds just get told to call trumpton.

 

[fossyant]

My youngest is a firefighter, he has had training on them, not sure how much but I will certainly ask next time I see him.

The Insurance company my sister and BIL work for don't like electric cars for the risk/cost of batteries. That said, the company hasn't ever come up on my insurance renewals quotes (big UK Insurer) and my BIL is in the motor side - he must not be busy...

Toyota are running most of the hybrids on older battery tech - that seems to be holding out OK given some of the age of the Prius cars running about as Taxis (local fella has over 250,000 miles on his) and the rough as 'taxis' on holiday...

 

[fossyant]

I've seen a Lipo go up, and the cars are full of them. 4 in your bike light, 9 in your laptop, hundreds in a car. The batteries need protecting in a car, hence why replacement pack is expensive.

The folk that invented the Lipo got an award recently, but that's been the only main 'evolution' in battery technology in many years. We need more research.