$60,000 to replace battery. The battery costs more than a brand new car!

welcome to the motormouth YouTube channel I'm Zach I'm Andrea and boy have we got a story to tell you imagine this a 2022 Hyundai ionic 5 that cost $55,000 brand new getting a quote for over $60,000 Canadian to replace the battery more than the car is brand new this is a rear wheeel drive Long Range model and we had the opportunity to speak to the owner Kyle Sue who is dealing with these issues coming up in this video we have documentation of the quote from the dealership we also have pictures from Kyle from the body shop and we have a statement from Hyundai Canada about all this so I just want to set the table first of all we're in Canada this car is in Vancouver British Colombia we're talking about Canadian dollars they're big numbers nonetheless so you can extrapolate into US dollars it's still going to be quite expensive and when you hear the term ICBC that's the insurer the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia so when you hear ICBC that's the insurance company yeah so let's get into the story Kyle's going to come on a little bit later to talk as well but it all started on a road trip and he was heading to the interior at British Columbia he saw something on the road he tried to avoid it he felt like he did avoid it and he went on his way when he got back he decided to get the vehicle checked out when the dealership called him to give him an update on the vehicle they said that they see damage to the battery Protection cover you could see scratches on the cover but they also said that the round part where we have an Arrow showing it has widened and the dealership says that that means the battery was impacted and that means his warranty is void okay here's where it gets kind of interesting so this cover is meant to protect the battery from you know running over something and having an impact and what we found out is that that the cover even if the cover is damaged they're saying the battery needs to be replaced the dealership never took the cover off no and to have a look at the actual battery itself to see if it was damaged at all they just say because the space between the hole and the battery above is wider than it should be that's enough for them to say it needs to be replaced and that the battery has been impacted which I didn't realize is that a battery warranty could be void that was a real surprise to me so Kyle decided that obviously this is not something that he could afford to fix himself so he went through his insurance and the vehicle was sent to the body shop so when he got a call from the insurer who told him that Hyundai has quoted battery replacement of $660,000 Canadian the insurer said your vehicle is not worth that much anymore we are going to have to write it off unfortunately for Kyle that means losing his clean driving record ICBC told him that his insurance may increase by 50% because of that but what was Kyle going to do he's can't afford to pay $660,000 on a brand new ionic 5 okay so here's the invoice this is for the body shop and the body shop working with the insurer gets the price for the battery replacement part which is $56,000 so the part has a part number and that's the price then you add in tax and labor the labor actually isn't that much uh it brings the total to over $6,000 for a car that's one year old what I kind of find interesting is to me as a lay person looking not not a mechanic looking at the bottom of this uh the scratch doesn't look that bad and if the battery physically wasn't impacted I don't understand so what should have happened here is the dealership should have contacted head office and they didn't do that so the decision was made by the insurer and the dealership to wrate the vehicle off the body shop also told Kyle that there are very few scratches on the battery Protection cover and that they could understand why he feels like he never hit anything yeah so what should have happened in this situation and we've since found out uh they've made some changes from head office in Canada down to the deal uh this sort of thing should go right to head office to get their experts and they told us after the fact they're trying to get Korea involved um to find out what's wrong with the battery but that horse has already left the barn Kyle also mentioned that he had a lot of trust in the dealership and didn't feel that he should go to Hyundai Canada go to head office the dealership said because his warranty was void that they were going to file a report with Hyundai Canada anyway so Kyle kind of felt like this was his last resort was taking care of it through Insurance okay so put yourself in a situation you have a car where the replacement cost of the battery is more than buying a brand new car so you're obviously not going to pay for the car twice no or you can go to your insurer and have it written off and get a big chunk of that money back which is what he decided to do it does impact his insurance long term so we found out about this uh cuz he's a local guy contacted us and we got in touch with Hyundai Canada directly and we have a statement from them and this is what they had to say we heard from the national PR manager for Hyundai Canada Jennifer McCarthy and this is what she had to say about the $60,000 Canadian battery replacement quote this is a very rare situation and each is unique in this case Hyundai Canada's customer experience team should have had the opportunity to assess the situation prior to costing being shared the cost of battery replacement depends on the nature of the damage repairs required the type of battery as well as the generation of the vehicle and therefore there is no one set price for every replacement however battery cost is a challenge for our business which requires Hyundai Canada to continue evaluating its battery replacement and costing processes we're working towards implementing a pricing strategy for batteries that is reasonable fair and in line with Market competitiveness but what I find interesting is we actually do know the cost of the battery the battery has a part number and the part says it's $56,000 plus tax and labor it's over 60 Grand to put it in the car so there's a big problem here not just with Hyundai but the entire industry when it comes to battery Replacements is what is a fair price for a battery on a car that's maybe five years old does that mean that every EV that's damaged or has to have a battery replaced is worthless well that's the concern ER I was focusing on battery degradation I never for once thought that a one-year-old vehicle would need battery replacement people buy EVS for a variety of reasons obviously to save money on fuel but also for the environment to lower their emissions as well as their carbon footprint writing off a perfectly good brand new ionic 5 here's a picture of it that was the day that Kyle said goodbye to his vehicle just doesn't make sense to me yeah well that's that's one of the things we got to unbox all this as we go forward okay so what I think we should do is bring in Kyle now and to get a quote from Kyle the first question we asked them is what did the dealership say to you and how did you know the battery needed to be replaced when I was at the dollar at the their uh service department they I asked several questions uh like whether my battery is damaged really damaged they can always tell me that uh because of the difficulties uh they couldn't discover uh even if they open the remov the battery protection pack they couldn't uh make sure it's really damaged according to them it's impacted they only remind me of my uh liabilities so I have to replace the battery otherwise it's going they said it's going to explode anytime that's how they told me they reported to Hyundai Canada so uh they would know that this car is out of warranty specifically for the battery so I will be liable if it's causing fires or explosion so that's why I follow their advice to make the uh uh Insurance claim and then uh follow their advice on replacing the whole battery so I think one of the issues here is people when they're dealing with the dealership if it says Hyundai or Ford or Toyota on the front of the dealership they think they're dealing with the company they're not they're dealing with the dealership but they're not aware of that so as you heard from the statement from Hyundai Canada they want to be involved in all of these going forward but that's not the case right now well they've changed their processes now they've realized after a few stories in the news there was another recent one on an older ionic model with a $50,000 battery quote now I want to say that I read that article and the owner did go to Hyundai Canada he was redirected back to the dealership and frankly just gave up now Hyundai Canada has come back to him and trying to work out uh something for him to make him a little bit happier but I think the key is is that we shouldn't have to fight for everything we are Kyle's Advocate today and we're bringing this story to you so that you understand some of the things that you need to do this is not so clean and cut and dry yeah so don't just take what the dealer says as the gospel you need to push and open a file call the head office open a file and get them involved in the process and then hopefully you can get some asure and today this may be a Hyundai problem but this is going to be a bigger problem for All Brands and I really think that all brands should start changing their process now this is what Hyundai said about their new process in place warranty related repairs for the majority of our EVS on the road would be covered by Hyundai Canada for older evv models part of our new processes focuses on ensuring dealerships escalate all hybrid and EV related battery claims allowing us to investigate properly and therefore assist customers the best we can this includes corresponding directly with insurance companies as needed so since we got involved we were in contact with Hyundai Canada head office they then got in touch with Kyle so we asked Kyle what did they do for you what are they planning to do for you and how will this affect your insurance so they actually asked me if uh I'm interested in uh buying a new Hyundai fan uh with some discount that's their uh first uh uh when they talk to me and then because I'm out of a car right now so that's what they uh asked me if I'm interested in and I do tell them uh at this moment you know uh I'm not sure if I can justify myself to buy another Hyundai vehicle right and I do tell them uh because of this if my car could have been safe without going through the insurance I will need to face the a huge increase in my insurance it's going to double for over the the 10 years in future so from now and in 10 years my insurance every year it's paying double from my original amount I I I did tell them like I was considered no longer a good driver because uh they remove all my discount rates from the insurance uh factors and and that's going to stick with me for 10 years that's a nightmare like every year you renew your insurance you will be terrified by the amount of the insurance increased so people who aren't EV owners right now might be thinking yikes about this story we asked Kyle what sort of advice does he have for potential EV buyers first figure out how much uh is your battery replacement cost when you are uh thinking of buying one at the dealership and then uh research uh the situations that will Avid your warranty for the battery um that's uh the most important things but Ro hazards it does happen if the scratches on the protection pack could void your warranty you have to be very very careful in the following eight years even if you like if you want to make sure your warranty for the battery is still good and it's not just about warranty it's when they told you that you're out of warranty and your battery is impacted that means you might be liable for uh potential hazards caused by your car and uh you don't know when your car is going to uh stop working your EV cars so uh that makes me you know need to think twice before I make the decisions to buy an EV card again are you prepar to replace the battery at this cost cuz no one can imagine predict how much would that cost after eight years they would might told you they might have told you that the battery replacement cost will continues to decrease and at that time you will have a cheer battery to replace but at this right now you would know that it's $60,000 so the real burning question we have to Kyle is would he buy another EV for me like I like the idea of an EV but even till now I'm still debating whether I should have another evv uh for sure I when when I first came to Hyundai ionic 5 I was uh attracted by the idea to own an Eevee and then uh and then see if it would work you know like it probably save you from fuel cause and uh and then it's a a new like a uh trendy car you know but right now I'm still debating like I I cannot justify my reasons anymore if I know the car has no used car values after eight years because the battery would probably take up all the uh the values of your car then whether I should just own a luxury car right now like uh as I mentioned before like if I need to prepare another $60,000 I probably have wide range of car selections at this moment uh not just an Eevee anymore or the money that I could save from fuel from gas probably won't be able to cover my another battery replacement so had Hyundai Canada been involved and they tried to get access to the car but the car was already transferred to the insurance company's name and is going to be salvaged yeah they tried to get Hyundai in Korea involved so they maybe they could find out more about the battery and if it did actually need to be replaced what I find surprising is there's a Protection cover to protect the battery underneath the car why wasn't that taken off and have a good long hard inspection of the actual battery to see what's up well I mean doesn't that sound logical we asked the question we put it to Hyundai Canada unfortunately we didn't get an answer except that Hyundai Canada is taking charge now of these sort of battery issues it will no longer be dealt with at the dealership level um I think that that is good I think that this process needs to be in place we cannot be raing off brand new vehicles and a battery costing more than what the original price of the vehicle is it just doesn't make any sense to me so take what Kyle said if you are interested in buying an EV do your due diligence understand the warranty from each brand this is a bigger issue I don't believe that it is just one brand today like I said is Hyundai but we could see it later on as more EVS hit the market from other brands I just want to thank Kyle for coming forward I think that we can learn a lot from this story Zach and I learned a lot I think dealerships can as well as manufacturers and of course viewers so we tried to be fair with this not really take any sides we're just asking Common Sense questions and we still have more questions and we're going to do a followup with Kyle to see where he lands if he's going to get another Hyundai uh if any sort of compensation for his insurance anything like that we're going to we're going to follow up with another video and Hyundai said that they're also going to keep us in the loop with any new processes that come up and how they are communicating with their dealer Network all right thanks for watching

Channel: Motormouth

Views: 1,927,793

Keywords: what does it cost to replace an EV battery?, what is the cost to replace a battery in an electric car?, electric car battery cost?, Battery cost for an EV?, zack spencer, andrea spencer, zack spencer's wife, couple car review, motormouth

Id: dr3mFzh0KSk

Length: 17min 26sec (1046 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023