The Batteries are falling! The Batteries are falling!

Remember way back in the early 2000s when hybrids came out and people basically turned their nose up to them? I mean--come on, an electric car? Yeah right! The big three basically scoffed at this, drinking their SUV cocktails and taking hits off of the cheap gas and keeping that daily high without seeing what was around the corner or planning for the carbon footprinted future.

Well now who's laughing?? Not them, that's for sure. In the age where Priuses rule and Hummers drool (literally), there has been a wide sweeping change among the green community, but there has also been some concerns--namely the battery life in these cars. The old adage was that they'd need to be replaced by 100K on the odometer, but that hasn't been the mainstream issue, but as some of these cars age and the resale value continues to weather the storm but go down more than gasoline cars, the question is--why?

Well, even though batteries have lasted longer, the public is leery about having to change them out and the exorbitant cost they carry; however, in recent months, the prices of these have gone done considerably, and the swarm of people buying up batteries on eBay is almost cabbage-patch like (ok, not THAT bad, I haven't seen someone punch someone out for a battery). Still, these are not DIY things and mechanics still charge a lot to put them in, but the feeling is that the costs will go down as ownership and supply continue to rise, and studies show that a typical "switchout" of a battery has gone from an average of 4-5K to now about 2500-3000 total. Not astronomical, but significant. The skepticism obviously is still rampant that the batteries won't last long enough despite data to prove otherwise, and people will continue to buy based upon their own logic (like they did in 2000, right?).

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The Batteries are falling! The Batteries are falling!

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