Admit it, you hate it when you buy a new computer or mobile phone only to have a newer, better
one come out the week later.
And I bet it's happened to you at least once.
And as you'll know if you've purchased an electric car, there's a similar amount
same pain and suffering when your new car gets superseded by a newer, more capable model
with a larger capacity battery pack and longer range.
It's double the pain if this new car is practically identical to yours -- only with
a larger battery pack.
Why?
Because while Tesla used to let you upgrade your battery pack, it doesn't any more.
Nor do most automakers out there, claiming that the swap is either technically difficult
or simply too expensive.
Except two.
BMW and Renault.
And I'm going to tell you all about how cool these two companies are in offering such
an upgrade next.
Hi everyone!
It's Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield here from Transport Evolved and today we're going to talk about
battery swapping.
No, I don't mean the rapid battery swap tech that failed company Better Place tried
to to use across Israel to shift everyone to clean, green electric cars powered by renewable
energy…
Nor do I mean Tesla's experimental battery swap station that was supposed to offer Tesla
customers long-range travel without needing to wait at a Supercharger station for an hour
while their car refuelled.
No, I'm talking about taking your existing electric car battery pack and swapping it
out for a more capable, longer-range version when one becomes available, not only giving
your electric car a new lease of life if it's getting a little long in the tooth but actually
extending its capabilities and range beyond what was possible when it was new.
So far, battery upgrades have been a little bit of a pain in the butt to get.
While most automakers out there will quite happily replace a battery pack under warranty
(if it suffers premature ageing or catastrophic capacity loss that's outside of what the
warranty says is normal) you'll likely get a new battery pack that's the same capacity
as the original one.
Sometimes that battery pack will even include newer, next-generation cells to ensure longer
life and better performance in extreme temperatures -- but you're going to get the same capacity
as you originally had.
The only exception to that historically has been Tesla, which at one time did let early
Tesla Model S owners swap out lower-capacity battery packs for higher-capacity ones -- provided
they paid the appropriate upgrade fee.
Last year, BMW became the first automaker to officially offer battery upgrades for owners
of its i3 electric car, offering those in key markets the chance to swap their car's
original 22 kilowatt-hour battery packs for upgraded 33 kilowatt-hour battery packs.
UK and U.S. customers aren't able to take advantage of this, as neither BMW UK nor BMW
North America signed up to the scheme, but those in mainland Europe can upgrade their
BMW i3's battery pack for seven thousand euro (about seven thousand six hundred U.S.
dollars or six thousand pounds), provided they exchange the new pack for their old one.
The old battery then heads off to BMW where it enters into BMW's second-life program
to become part of a grid-tied electricity storage system.
And if you've got that extra money, that's a great upgrade opportunity in order to extend
the original 81 miles of the BMW i3 EV to 114 miles.
But you still have to pay the extra money and that's quite a chunk of change to find
behind the back of the sofa.
But earlier this week French automaker Renault announced that it would soon be offering owners
of its ZOE electric car the chance to upgrade their ZOE's existing battery pack from the
22 kilowatt-hour pack it came with to the latest-generation 41 kilowatt-hour pack.
That's nearly double the capacity of the original pack, meaning double the range in
real-world conditions.
And what's more, customers won't have to fork out quite as much on the upgraded
pack in one sitting as BMW customers, because in most European markets the Renault ZOE is
sold to customers without a battery pack -- and then it charges customers a monthly lease
fee based on the number of miles they expect to do per year.
Pricing to upgrade your ZOE Z.E. from 22 kilowatt-hours to 41 kilowatt-hours is reportedly three thousand
five hundred Euro if you lease your current battery pack (plus you'll have to sign up
to a new battery rental contract which will likely carry a higher monthly cost) or nine
thousand nine hundred euro if you happen to live in one of the markets where Renault has
been selling ZOE with a battery pack as part of the purchase deal.
Now, whatever your thought on battery leasing -- many European customers are said to prefer
outright purchase to leasing -- this means that it might be easier to budget for a battery
upgrade if you're a ZOE driver than say a BMW i3 owner.
But like all other automakers, know that both Renault and BMW would unofficially prefer
you to buy a new car.
After all, that's where they make most their money, right?
Can you switch from a leased 22 kilowatt-hour to a purchased 41 kilowatt-hour pak?
Yes, but you'll have to pay out the lease deal with Renault Credit International (which
is seven thousand euro when new, depreciating by ten percent for every year you've owned
the car).
That said however, if you're looking to extend the life of your car -- which is by
far the more ecological solution to just buying a new car -- battery pack upgrades are the
way forward, which is why I think every automaker should offer them.
They won't of course, but hey, I can wish right?
How about you?
Do you think battery pack upgrades are a good or a bad thing?
Have you had a battery pack upgrade for your car?
How did it go?
Was it worth the extra money?
And would you do it again?
Leave your thoughts in the Comments below, and don't forget to like, comment and subscribe!
And if you want to help me make more videos like this, consider donating to Transport
Evolved via the Patreon crowdfunding campaign we've got going -- a link for which is in
the description below and at the end of this video.
I'll be back tomorrow with more videos so don't forget to hit the notification button
in YouTube to make sure you don't miss it!
Thanks for watching, I'm Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, and until next time, Keep Evolving!
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