Cost of the Ford Focus EV Battery: $15,000 For A Car That Normally Sells For $22,000

Updates:

April 28, 2012: Most hybrid owners will not buy a second one; less than 40% of Boston hybrid owners plan to buy another hybrid.

Auto owners looking to go green may want to take notice of a new report out by Edmunds.com noting hybrid owners don't repeat that purchase when looking for a new set of wheels.

That's not stopping brand new buyers from grabbing a fuel-efficient vehicle. According to Wards Auto, U.S. vehicles that averaged more than 30 miles per gallon accounted for 11.8% of all new car sales in the U.S. in March. That's up from 4.3% from the same time last year.

The online auto trading site surveyed drivers in Boston and found that only 38.4% of Beantown drivers who owned a hybrid would buy another one.

The automotive market research firm R.L. Polk, which conducted the Edmunds Boston drivers' study, also says that only 35% of hybrid car owners bought another electric/gas vehicle as a trade-in during 2011.

The fact that only about one-third of hybrid owners would repeat the hybrid experience is surprising, given the positive press coverage "green" vehicles enjoy.

Ominous for manufacturers of hybrids and EVs.

Original Post

Link here to WSJ:

One of the auto industry’s most closely guarded secrets—the enormous cost of batteries for electric cars—has spilled out.

Speaking at a forum on green technology on Monday, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally indicated battery packs for the company’s Focus electric car costs between $12,000 and $15,000 apiece.

“When you move into an all-electric vehicle, the battery size moves up to around 23 kilowatt hours, [and] it weighs around 600 to 700 pounds,” Mr. Mulally said at Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Green conference in California.

“They’re around $12,000 to $15,000 [a battery]” for a type of car that normally sells for about $22,000, he continued, referring to the price of a gasoline-powered Focus. “So, you can see why the economics are what they are.”