A Florida man went viral after he posted a car dealership quote showing it would cost nearly $30,000 to replace the battery in his electric vehicle.
Rob O’Donnell posted the quote, obtained from Roger Dean Chevrolet in Cape Coral, on Twitter last week. The quote includes the cost of the battery (nearly $27,000), the cost of labor ($1,200), and taxes for the repair (more than $1,700).
In total, it would cost O’Donnell $29,842.15 to replace the battery in his 2012 Chevrolet Volt. The car itself is worth far less.
“Bet that Chevy Volt sounded like a good idea at first,” O’Donnell quipped.
The absurd cost led many social media users to question the authenticity of the quote. But the car dealership has confirmed it is legitimate.
“This is an estimate for a 12 year old vehicle out of warranty and for a battery that is extremely hard to get, due to the older technology of the 12 year old vehicle. The dealership does not set battery prices,” the dealership explained on Facebook.
But the dealership also defended electric vehicles, claiming the high cost to replace O’Donnell’s battery is related to the car being a decade old.
“In the newer EV or EUV vehicles with newer technology the batteries do cost less,” the dealership said. “Think of it like big screen TVs. Remember when the first big screen came out, they were very expensive, and as the technology advanced the prices became better.”
But as Recurrent Auto explained, the cost to replace an EV battery can still exceed $20,000 for some vehicle models when labor and other costs are calculated.
Cape Coral man received $30k estimate for electric car battery replacement
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Earlier this summer, another Florida resident went viral after she learned the cost to replace her EV battery exceeded the purchase price of the vehicle.