Is anyone else worried about replacing a battery pack in the future?

[AlpaChino]

Maybe it's just me, but I went into my MME considering it to be a car I'd have for at least 6 years. Within the first year of ownership I've put 19,500 miles on it. More miles than I was anticipating at this point, but I have no regrets. It's been a great car for me and my family.

I caught this story a few days ago about a family forking over more money on a new battery than what the car was worth, in the case of an electric Ford Focus. Currently, an MME battery pack plus labor is in the neighborhood of 18-28k.

Unless we see this cost drop significantly in the next 5 years, I may be driving something different before the 6 year mark.

Is anyone else thinking about this? Is there any hope for an aftermarket battery? Has Ford put anything to paper regarding a battery swap program once their own manufacturing plant is up and running in the states?

Sponsored

 

[Djynn81]

I will worry after the 8 year warranty. Hope by then there will be aftermarket options.

 

[billyp]

I was thinking about this as well. My hope is the rest of the car holds up well and spending $10-15k on a battery gives you more or less a "new" car. You're saving on other maintenance an ICE engine would have so depending on where you have things serviced, you may be out of pocket that amount for ICE maintenance anyway. Just a bigger shock to pay it all at once.

 

[AKgrampy]

The issue, I believe, is that it is not the same as just swapping a 12 V battery of the past. I doubt with all the controls, cooling, figment, etc that there will ever be an aftermarket replacement. Perhaps as more and more EVs are out there this may become a business model. Ford did change lease arrangements for EV’S stating it is to control batteries so perhaps they do have a cradle to grave business plan in the works for the battery pack.

 

[sotek2345]

Nope - took Ford options (48 month) because technology is moving too fast for the Gen 1 Mach-e to be a long term car for us. We will see where the market is at in ~3.5 years (or more likely 2.5 years to plan on a 1 year wait from order to delivery).

 

[frontrunner]

that Focus was only a 3 year production, so if you remember in the article, the more worrying issue is that they couldn't even find a replacement battery pack to buy at the listed $14k price. It would be shocking if that's the case with the Mach E. They're selling faster than they can make them. I didn't even know they made an electric Focus, TBH.

 

[Logal727]

Just more EV fear mongering in that article

 

[BalsaDust]

Not entirely worried at this point, I have seen plenty of high mileage EV's reports and all have been favorable.
It all comes down to how you use or abuse the battery. Home charging at lower amps and limiting DCFC will increase the longevity of the battery, but granted that doesn't apply to everyone here.
Me personally I have only charged at home at 32 amps and don't expect to be doing much cross country travelling so DCFC will be limited at best.
At my age I am hoping this will be my last daily driver,

Tony

 

[DevSecOps]

Nope - took Ford options (48 month) because technology is moving too fast for the Gen 1 Mach-e to be a long term car for us. We will see where the market is at in ~3.5 years (or more likely 2.5 years to plan on a 1 year wait from order to delivery).

Personally, I agree 100% with you. I purchased the car outright, but I doubt I'll have it more than 3 years. The technology, both traditional technology and battery technology is progressing at too fast of a pace for me to keep the car for any extended period of time.

All that being said, I would say at least 50% of this forum is comprised of people my dad's age who grew up holding on to cars and/or retired. So, if I put myself in their shoes, I could see where they would be concerned.

To all those people who would like to monitor their battery there's a site which might be able to help you and show you the degradation over time, and how the battery should perform in the future. It's free and you can sign up here. I am in no way affiliated with them nor do I make money off of that link. The more people who sign up, the more accurate data we have as a community.

Examples from recurrent, using my vehicle:

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

I know the range is going to drop over the years, as it did with my Lincoln hybrid. I tend to keep my cars for a decade or more. What I hope is, that after market companies are offering cheaper solutions. I cannot see myself putting $28K into a used car, that is a hell of a down payment on a new or used car.

 

[RickMachE]

We had our Fusion hybrid for 8 1/2 years, and noticed no issues. We asked the Service Manager how many batteries they had replaced over the years and he said none. Most dealerships will tell you maybe one or two.

They bought a vehicle produced 8 years ago. They have no idea how the prior owner(s) used it. And battery technology has advanced greatly. And there are aftermarket replacements.

But I want to address the subject line. Worried? Worried? You buy a $60,000 car and then worry about what might happen in 10 or 15 years? No way to live life IMO.

As has been said, I expect technology to rapidly advance. Keeping a car like this more than a few years won't be happening, both for battery technology as well as in-car technology. I expect to keep this a year or less (we already bought and sold a 2021 after 10.5 months of ownership). My thinking right now is maybe I won't order a F-150L that I have a reservation for, and instead buy a cancelled Mach-E again (2021 was a cancelled order), and not order again (this 2022 was 50+ weeks). My dealer will give me A-Plan on in-stock vehicles.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I caught this story a few days ago about a family forking over more money on a new battery than what the car was worth, in the case of an electric Ford Focus. Currently, an MME battery pack plus labor is in the neighborhood of 18-28k.

The FUD is strong in this article.

 

[LTC_HUGH]

Maybe it's just me, but I went into my MME considering it to be a car I'd have for at least 6 years. Within the first year of ownership I've put 19,500 miles on it. More miles than I was anticipating at this point, but I have no regrets. It's been a great car for me and my family.

I caught this story a few days ago about a family forking over more money on a new battery than what the car was worth, in the case of an electric Ford Focus. Currently, an MME battery pack plus labor is in the neighborhood of 18-28k.

Unless we see this cost drop significantly in the next 5 years, I may be driving something different before the 6 year mark.

Is anyone else thinking about this? Is there any hope for an aftermarket battery? Has Ford put anything to paper regarding a battery swap program once their own manufacturing plant is up and running in the states?

I have thought about the battery pack replacement. I believe there will be a newer and cheaper option by then.

 

[alangant]

Hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles have been on the road for many more years. I don't think I've heard much about people needing a replacement battery. In addition, these vehicles tend to use their batteries much more intensively: the batteries are much smaller, and the vehicle uses most of their range before switching to gas. So the total number of full range charge/discharge cycles seems like it would be much greater than a BEV, unless you are putting LOTS of miles on your MME.

This leads me to think that BEV batteries will exhibit a much longer lifespan than hybrids. Make sense?

 

[PilotMark]

I bought a Prius in 2008. The people next door thought I was crazy and an electric car (I know it's a hybrid not fully electric) will run out of battery. She had a friend that was stuck when her Prius died 350 miles from home. Toyota gave them a rental and that car got fixed.

When I bought the Prius a battery replacement was about $14000. Today they are at $3500. I expect the same to happen with Ford's EVs.

I think I"ll have the MME for 10+ years and probably another faster/sportier EV too.

The future is fun. and it will be here with or without us.

Sponsored