The big looming problem with old EVS
It’s really, really hard to change the batteries
When Clayton Brander’s Nissan Leaf first hit the showroom floor in 2013, it was advertised as having a range of 121 kilometres. Now, after 116,589 km on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, the car’s instrument cluster claims to have a range of 98 km, but Clayton says “it’s realistically more like 75 km if you don’t use heat or air conditioning and the weather conditions are perfect.”
So Brander set out to do what he assumed would be easy: Call the dealer and buy a new battery. But the Powell River man soon discovered that virtually no B.C. dealer had ever installed a post-warranty battery, and they even struggled to quote him a price.
“They keep referring you to Nissan Canada, who refer you back to your local dealer,” said Brander, adding, “this problem is going to get bigger as more of these Leafs start to lose their range.”
Electric vehicles are seeing a meteoric rise in the Canadian market.
In B.C., in particular, with zero emission vehicles now making up eight per cent of vehicle sales, the province’s vehicle fleet is rapidly becoming the most electrified in the world. As many of those vehicles now approach the end of their warranty periods, many owners are set to join Brander in learning that their vehicle’s most critical component — the battery pack — is often difficult to replace. As the electric vehicle revolution hits Canadian roads in earnest, many of those cars might end up hitting the junkyard far sooner than buyers suspect.
The National Post conducted an informal survey of western Canadian Nissan dealerships to ask the cost of replacing a battery pack on a 2013 Nissan Leaf. Estimates ranged from $8,000 to an eyewatering $30,953.28 plus $1,200 in labour.
Virtually every dealer contacted said they had never once performed a non-warranty battery replacement, and that ordering a full stack replacement is a complex process unlike any other Nissan component. “It’s not a normal process,” said one Vancouver Island dealer.
Scott Waddle is the owner of Precision Auto Service, a Vancouver-area mechanic specializing in electric vehicles.
He says he’s unable to acquire aftermarket batteries direct from Nissan, and thus all of his battery replacements have to be done using salvaged components from written-off vehicles.
“I could change a battery every day,” he said, but given the current supply crunch all he can do is maintain a waiting list until the next Lower Mainland auto-wrecking yard calls him with a written-off Leaf.
Waddle says he’s encountered similar problems in acquiring an aftermarket battery for the Volkswagen E-golf, as well as aftermarket Tesla parts. For instance, while almost all auto parts can be purchased tax-exempt by B.C. mechanics, Tesla charges seven per cent PST, which must be then applied again when Waddle resells it to a customer.
Said Waddle: “We need to keep these cars on the road. It’s an environmental disaster if these cars get thrown away every 10 years.”
After Clayton Brander went public with his concerns about battery replacement last October, Nissan Canada did reach out to him to offer a replacement battery at $13,500, which Brander rejected as too steep. “It’s deplorable that Nissan hasn’t come up with a way to keep these older models on the road,” he said.
A spokesman with Nissan Canada confirmed with the National Post that a replacement battery for a 2011-2017 Nissan Leaf retails at $11,533 plus installation for both the 24 kwh version and the 40 kwh version.
The battery pack for the Chevy Bolt — which was introduced to Canada in 2017 — currently retails for US$12,341.88 ($15,427.97). Without accounting for labour and shop costs, that’s already 40 per cent the cost of a brand new 2022 Bolt.
Most Tesla vehicles on Canadian roads are still within their original eightyear, 160,000 km battery warranty.
Nevertheless, last year, the owner of a Tesla Model 3 in Illinois experienced a rare example of a non-warrantied battery replacement when the vehicle’s power pack was damaged by a rock. The final bill came in at US$16,500 ($20,000), which is high, but more proportional given the Model 3’s status as a luxury car that retails new for $113,600.
Nevertheless, the high cost of battery replacement is also why Teslas have been found to have a higher “claim severity” on insurance than comparable luxury vehicles, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute.
EV enthusiasts maintain that any problems surrounding battery replacements are just a temporary hiccup for what is still a new technology, and that manufacturers are already starting to turn out vehicles with battery packs that can realistically retain an adequate charge for as long as the life of an average gas-powered car.
“This kind of goes without saying, but as with all new technology EVS will improve over time. The EVS being manufactured today have better battery technology than the EVS that were manufactured 5-10 years ago,” Plug’n Drive, an Ontario pro-ev non-profit, told the National Post in an email.
Ohio man Erick Belmer is famous among electric vehicle circles for driving a first-generation Chevrolet Volt that has now surpassed 460,000 miles (more than 740,000 km) with minimal effects on battery capacity (although the Volt, unlike the Leaf, the Bolt and Teslas, supplements its range with a gasoline generator). Teslas have also been clocked surpassing 250,000 km while only losing 10 per cent of their battery capacity.
Nevertheless, early model EVS can dramatically lose charge well before the vehicle has even approached 150,000 km.
This has been particularly apparent in early model Leafs, with some of the car’s first models becoming notorious for their quickly degrading batteries.
In Canada, Nissan offers a standard eight-year, 160,000 km warranty on its lithium-ion batteries that repairs or replaces them if their capacity drops below nine out of 12.
Nissan-specific web forums abound with drivers on their second warranty-covered batteries or, in one case, on their third.
“An internal combustion car from 2011 with 200,000 km probably works pretty well still, and probably works reasonably similar to the way it did when it was brand new. Whereas a 10-year-old EV from 2011 will provide one third of the capacity that it had when it was new,” said Julian Sale, owner of Motorize Electric Vehicles, a Vancouver Island seller of new and used EVS.
Motorize sold Clayton
Brander his Nissan Leaf, and Sale said he fully disclosed at the time of sale that the battery was fading and that it would be best served with a salvaged replacement rather than trying to contact Nissan directly.
“Nissan’s not in the business of keeping these things running forever, they want you to come and buy a new car. That’s their business model and it’s not a secret,” said Sale.
“They want to make maintaining the old vehicle so cost prohibitive that you just buy a new one.”
As for Motorize, Sale says they operate under a philosophy of changing owners, rather than the battery.
As EVS take up a larger share of the auto market, it’s also expected that a network of third-party suppliers will arise to swap out batteries with off-brand replacements. A similar phenomenon has already occurred in the market for gasoline-electric hybrids.
“Now with the hybrids it’s at a point where you don’t just have to go to the dealership,” said Sabrina Spenceley with the Duncan Dirt N Speed Shop, a Vancouver Island auto shop specializing in hybrid battery replacements.
The shop sources most of their batteries from third-party supplies such as Bumblebee Batteries or Global Hybrid Batteries.
As a result, when customers drive in an older Toyota Prius with charge issues, Spenceley said they’ve often been able to quote battery replacements that are half as expensive as those offered by dealerships.
Clayton Brander says he remains all-in on electric vehicles, and will continue driving his Leaf as long as he can.
As someone who went electric for its environmental benefits, he told the National Post he simply objects to a system that seems to prioritize replacement over repair.
“Unfortunately for their bottom line, they built a car that was too good,” he said.