[quartz]

Unrelated to price it's great to see PHEVs getting better and better on larger cars and drawing demand.

I've got a first-gen Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV which only gets like 17miles (ok more like 14 if the heat or A/C is on which is basically always) on electric but it makes a huge difference in overall mpg since I use the ICE on the highway and switch to electric in-town.

My one concern is that there's a huge question mark about what happens when the battery degrades over time. I'm happy to replace it when that happens but will be really bummed if my only option at that point is to put the same lower-capacity battery in.

[olyjohn]

Small battery like that won't be terrible to replace. I know for the 1st gen Insight, you can pick up those batteries for about $2000-2500. And usually when the car has a dead battery, the price of them is around... $2000-2500 cheaper than one with a good battery. Lots of people just drive them with bad batteries and still end up getting over 50mpgs.

[quartz]

I sure hope so. MSRP on the battery is over $10k right now from Volvo[1] although poking around some dealers have them as low as $8k. Maybe there will be aftermarket options in the future?

Sort of silly to hope for but if I'm lucky the battery will prematurely degrade within the 8-year hybrid warranty and they'll replace it for free.

[1] https://usparts.volvocars.com/p/Volvo_2017_XC90-20l-4-cylind...

[daydream]

I want to buy an XC90 but there’s very few to none new ones available anymore, and 2023s are $10k more. Oh well.