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A Battery is Expensive - so, Lease

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If I may offer a less analytical reason for leasing the battery (one that I also wrote in the Renault Zoe thread):

When I get my new Model S the battery will be mine and it will be new. I will not be very enthusiastic about going to a battery swap station with such a battery, so I will just not go, period.

How do you overcome this reluctance? Perhaps by leasing the battery. It isn't yours so you don't mind switching it for another.

Renault want to encourage battery swap - maybe because many people in continental Europe do not have a garage where they can charge overnight - so perhaps that is why they are leasing them.
 
If you only purchased the car portion and leased the battery, I don't see that being much of an issue. I think I'd much rather do that. It would make the Model S a $40,000 car or there-abouts.
 
If you only purchased the car portion and leased the battery, I don't see that being much of an issue. I think I'd much rather do that. It would make the Model S a $40,000 car or there-abouts.

Yes, that is true, but I think finding a place to do the "leasing" will be difficult and over long periods of time, the lease will cost more than the battery. The battery is the main wear item like an engine would be on an ICE car, so to flip it around the ICE car would cost at least 5K-10 K less on an average car, but I don't think any company would have you buy a car and lease the engine from them
 
I think it'd be an interesting model actually. You could have one single price for the car but different monthly rates for the 160, 230, 300 mile batteries.

Might be a way to get me in to a 230.

You present an interesting concept David... if the low or high capacity batteries fit the same space in the Model S, and the rest of the car is the same, then it would be possible to lower the monthly battery leasing cost by using the lower capacity battery, but when needed you could switch to the high capacity one. It would be relatively simple to manage these different lease rates as part of the battery exchange and recharge billing system, and the benefit for the consumer is considerable.
 
I think we will see dedicated battery companies before long. These companies will focus on a wide range of battery issues:

- Battery disposal/reuse/resale
- Battery analysis
- Battery repair
- Battery sales
- Battery leasing
- Battery rental
- Battery storage

In ten years, it wouldn't surprise me if I could visit my local battery company, and rent a large capacity battery for the weekend. While I'm renting the large-capacity battery the company stores my battery in a charging rack and when I return I get my battery back. Or if my battery dies after 10 years, and I still want to use my car for another 3 years, I go to this company, and sign a 3 year lease on a battery. Or if my battery has declined in capacity, I visit the company and get them to take a look at replacing cells, fuses, etc.

For this to happen, EVs must, first of all, become a lot more widely adopted. Secondly, car companies need to cooperate more on battery infrastructure.