[elorant]

What about batteries wearing out year after year? How much would it cost to change all the batteries in your car?

[5ilv3r]

There is very little year over year wear. After a decade or two in a moderate climate you can expect 80% capacity still.

[r00fus]

I remember the talking point 15 years ago about Prius batteries being more expensive than the gas they offset. I owned one for 12 years and it still got 50+mpg (old method - more like 48mpg with new EPA calcs) to the day it died (my fault) - same battery.

Also aftermarket reconditioned Prius batteries are like $400.

[antisthenes]

How can you possibly make that claim when the oldest electric-only vehicles are 10 years old?

How can you possibly make that claim without knowing the driving patterns of the person you're addressing?

What is a moderate climate ?

I mean, I'd love to just assume what you said is true (I'm as much as an electric car fan as your typical HN'er), but you're going to need to provide some data to back those claims up.

[r00fus]

Go to the Tesla forums. You can estimate 10 year degradation rate based on the 5 year rate.

Moderate climate probably refers to not having many freezing or >100 temp days.

[antisthenes]

Yes, estimates, not certainties.

Thanks for proving my point.

[r00fus]

Recent HN posts for a Tesla indicated wear levels of 10-15% over 5 years. If it's worse than that for me, chargers are now becoming commonplace where I live.

Buy a vehicle with 150% of your maximum daily range and you're fine. Lease if you're even more concerned.