Believe it or not there are still some people that don’t get insurance when they buy a car. Now I know if you live in the U. K. you have to get insurance when you buy a car you don’t have a choice but lot of countries around the world you do have a choice. Some people decide not to get it.
Well here’s a cautionary tale on why you absolutely 100 percent should get insurance on an ev and make sure that that insurance covers battery. Now what is going on? What am I talking about? All of these rises from what just happened in China. I know that there are a number of other stories similar. Here’s a cautionary tale of why you must get insurance, why you must make sure your insurance covers you for doing silly things or for just denting your battery pack. Particularly if you own a Volvo or Polestar electric car. Recently someone in China crashed their polestar E.V. They went to the polestar and they said cannot replace the battery pack and also said yeah you can for 80,000 US dollars. Now everyone thought that this was a joke and everyone thought it was a made up story, it must haven’t been real but it turns out actually it was. The cost of replacing a battery pack in the polestar 2 is twice the price of a new car, literary twice the price! You can but 2 polestar EVs for the cost to replace one battery pack and that’s made the story go viral in China. The latest development in the story shows that the vehicle has actually been scrapped rather than replace the battery everyone went, well this doesn’t make sense. We’ll just get rid of the car and buy another one. Unfortunately for this guy he did have insurance so his insurance company is on the hook for the new car he doesn’t have to buy . Mr. Huang the owner of the polestar 2 dual motor long range version, had an accident while driving that resulted in damage to the headlights and the chassis inward denting of the battery panel, according to report by local media outlet Jiemian on August 19 of this year. During the repair process Mr. Huang was told by his dealership that the vehicle needed a battery pack and a replacement cost was quoted at $79,000.
Polestar is the premium electric vehicle maker owned by Geely and Volvo and it’s Chinese website shows that the polestar 2 his currently available in 3 versions. Starting at a price of RMB 2,69,000 which is around 40,000 US dollars. Yes, he did have a more expensive version of the car, he had the long range version that’s priced at 340,000 RMB but he was only invoiced 249,000 RMB when he purchased the vehicle. He got another big discount. So he got a closer to 40,000 US dollars and the vehicle was being scrapped. As of yesterday the vehicle was scrapped but fortunately for him, his insurance company has to cover the cost. Now everyone was saying, Polestar what’s going on? Why does this battery pack cost so much money? It’s insane. Polestar said that replacing the battery pack would no cost $80,000 but they wouldn’t say what it would cost. So it’s a lot of money. Why is it so much money to replace the battery pack in a polestar electric car and why does it cost more to replace the battery pack into a new car which Polestar has in fact confirmed is true? Polestar was co-founded by Volvo and Geely in 2017 and they first unveiled an EV and their first TV the Polestar 1 the same year, then the polestar 2 became officially delivered in 2020. That was the brand’s first real production model that went on sale globally. On June 24, Polestar and special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Guggenheim completed their merger and officially began trading on the NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol “PSNY”. The high cost of the battery pack replacement comes from the structure of the pack according to Polestar. Polestar said the Polestar 2’s battery pack has an H. shaped distribution in two layers, which has some structural differences from the common battery pack that is laid flat in one block, and the structure apparently reduces the risk of battery pack damage but as a result of this complicated structure, the repair cost is high. So from Volvo Polestar or Geely whatever you want to call them; to come in and replace that battery pack they’ve got to actually structurally change the car, basically cut it, replace the pack, and then re-weld it. It’s a huge huge job and that is the reason why replacing that battery is so expensive. That’s another reason why I keep banging on. What am I banging on about well, I keep recommending you buy an LFP battery pack. What am I talking about? Lithium iron phosphate battery pack. If you buy a Lithium iron phosphate battery pack you’re going to get a lot longer life out of your battery meaning it’s much less likely, you have to get out of that car, get a welder out, and start cutting it up in order to put a new battery pack. Even it’s worst doing that in the first place number. Now, most modern EVs will last a lot longer than older EVs. For example, there’s a Tesla Model 3 that has done time 510,000 kilometers and only has 20 percent battery degradation. So you can imagine, how long that car will last considering it’s not an LFP battery pack and that car has done incredibly well. LFP packs on average would do 3 times as many cycles as the lithium ternary packs. So you can keep your car for a long time past its warranty period LFP is the way to go. That’s what I think and clearly, that’s what Elon says as well. He said lithium-ion phosphate battery chemistry is the battery chemistry of the future.
