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Thursday, February 03, 2022

Mercedes owner discovers new battery will cost more than car is worth

A driver was stunned to discover the cost to replace his Mercedes Benz's battery is £15,000 - more than the value of the vehicle itself.

Ranjit Singh, 63, bought the second-hand Mercedes Benz hybrid car four years ago, believing its lower CO2 emissions meant it was greener than the alternatives. The motorist, from Knighton, Leicester, bought it for £27,000 at a Mercedes Benz dealership.

But Ranjit learnt this week the battery had come to the end of its life after just eight years of motoring.

He claims he was quoted £15,000 for a battery replacement - excluding labour costs which he was quoted would be roughly around £200 an hour.
-Chuck

25 comments:

  1. EV economics often cannot be positive unless one uses other peoples' money as part of the purchase. There's a lot of innumerate people that need good feelings however. Someone played a sikh joke on Singh

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  2. Go woke, go green, go broke

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  3. Well that sucks, but from what I know, all electric cars have the same future, and the smart buyers sell them long before they're stuck with a lemon.

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  4. Greener than the alternatives...

    Yes, if green means greenbacks! This is good, as it sequesters carbon in the enormous pile of cash printed to keep up with inflation.

    Stefan v.

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  5. And how much of the old battery is recyclable?

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    1. He had to pay a "fee" to have them shipped off to a special HazMat Landfill.
      Don't believe there are any TSDFs and recycle Lithium or nickel from batteries.

      "A sucker and his money are soon parted." PT Barnum

      [Treatment-Storage-Disposal Facility]

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  6. I can't wait til this EV thing blows sky high.

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  7. I wonder how they dispose of those batteries.

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  8. I've read charts and studies and other info on the "Greenness" of all the electric & hybrid vehicles, there is not a single one that's as green as it's touted to be. Every single one of them produce more carbon emissions than any form of fossil fuels can possibly produce. And then you add in the emissions from producing the "green" windmills & turbines, add in the solar panel production costs in emissions, neither of which are recyclable and have a limited life, and the carbon emissions produced by the "green" alternative is way way way beyond what fossil fuels produce. There are other alternatives out there, I would think there are some that will be workable. Each of them has their place, each has it's drawback. There is no easy way out. there is no magic bullet. Unless we are willing to return to the days of electricity from lightening and light from tallow candles. The world was here functioning millions of years before we came on the scene, it will be here millions of years after we leave the scene. As a species, we humans got less than a stellar record.

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  9. so much for the Ultimate Driving Experience of German vehicles....

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  10. Hybrid and full electric vehicles are one of the most obvious examples of a false economy, both economically and environmentally, that there has ever been! When the similar costs of recycling the batteries are considered, the electric vehicle is more destructive than comparable internal combustion versions. The people who rushed EVs to market, along with the governments that subsidized their manufacture, purchase and charging, all knew this beforehand but pushed the technology anyway.

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  11. Something I have said on other venues many times. With the price of a replacement battery pack, EVs will be one owner, throwaway vehicles. And explain to me how that is supposed to be Green?

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    1. If the fucker dies in the middle of death valley and the idiot doesn't have water. It improves the gene pool.

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  12. Surprise now write that check
    JD

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  13. "We also looked online at Mercedes-Benz forums, and found a lot of people facing the same issues. I fear this is only going to get worse,"

    Well, no shit Sherlock. Sucks to be you owning an EV with a nearly dead battery, like you couldn't see that coming from outer space?

    EV's along with all the rest of the "green" tech products still have a long way to go before they're capable of replacing fossil fuel derived power and transportation.

    They've hyped this stuff with lies, like usual, and people everywhere that own EV's or are/will have to depend on wind and solar for electric power to their homes and businesses are suffering the consequences of the politically motivated decisions around fossil fuels.

    There's STILL 900 years worth of coal reserves left in the ground, just in the USA. so what did the Buydem and Obozo regimes do? In practical fact they outlawed the mining of coal not to mention what they've done to the oil and gas industry, shutting down leases and new drilling.

    China, on the other hand, has been commissioning a new coal fired power plant EVERY WEEK for the last ten years or more, while the US and EU are doing practically nothing and actively working against ensuring that electricity availability grows enough to meet demand.

    All of these people need to be taken to the nearest lamp post and strung up.

    Nemo

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  14. Tesla 25 grand american. Some Euroweenie was so pissed he blew his up in a yousetube video.

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    1. Yup .. happened in Finland. YouTube channel is called The Dynamite Guys .. or something similar. Said dead Tesla was wired up with 30kg of explosives and blown to pieces.

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    2. I look forward to one of the Rhoads Scholars out there putting one in a compactor with the batteries in place. Flambé!

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  15. All I know is for my Prius Plug-In an installed set of remanufactured EV batteries can be as little as a couple of thousand up to $10 or $12K if you buy new at the dealer.
    Mine is 10 years old and the traction (EV) battery is still under warranty until 150,000 miles. Mine has just over 90,000.
    I'm sure MBZ costs more than a Toyota, but there are plenty of Euro car shops who charge a lot less than the dealer.

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  16. I think there is a market for a small gas powered generator, coupled with a small gas tank that would fit into the space used for the dead battery pack.
    It least it wouldn't be a brick?

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  17. car companies want to tell you they're doing this "for the environment". hell no. they're doing this to make cars a disposable commodity WAY more than they are now.

    a 4 year old car is now junk, and it's cheaper to buy a new one than fix. meanwhile my subaru is old enough I could buy it a beer. repeat customers make good profits and if you can force them to come back before the item is actually worn out, that's scrooge mcduck money.

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  18. End goal is to keep you right there where they can find you easily.

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