In the future, hopefully all cars will become more “green.” But the cost of green cars such as hybrids are still expensive. Especially when you think of having to replace the batteries.
In June of 2008, hybrid car manufactures such as Toyota and Honda started to lower the prices of the car’s replacement batteries.
2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. Image from Wiki Commons.
For Honda, the cost of its batteries went from $3,400 (excluding installation) to as low as $1,968 on an Insight. And as high as $2,440 on an Accord hybrid. Toyota also reduce their battery prices, which is at $3,000 (excluding installation), down from $5,500 on the original Prius.
That would seem to be good news to many hybrid owners that will need to replace their batteries soon. That was two years ago.
But now there is another issue with the battery. The LA Times reported recently in August that Honda mailed out letters to more than 100,000 owners of 2006, 2007 and 2008 Civics in the U.S. and Canada. The letter stated the batteries “may deteriorate and eventually fail” earlier then expected. The company states a software fix would solve the problem.
Some Honda Civic hybrid owners got the software update for the car’s computer and noticed something was wrong. The update instead hindered the car’s gas mileage and acceleration. It basically turned their Civic hybrid into a regular Civic and not pulling in the extra mileage.
And now the California Air Resources Board is looking into Honda’s software update to see it it violates any vehicle emissions.
This does not look good for Honda. And many customers say they prefer a replacement of new batteries as their car is still under warranty. The dealership and Honda may see that as spending more money. But if they want to remain a reputable company, they may have to do just that.
I do hope Honda does the right thing and fix their problems. They are a good company and one of the first car companies to think green.
And Toyota is not far behind in making a green revolution with their Prius. The more green cars out there, the better!
6:52 pm on August 19th, 2010
Sounds like it would be very costly for the company and hope that they would get the situation under control and I bet this might turn into another situation like the Toyota brakes. But then again it might not be as bad since I’m sure there are not as many hybrid owners out there in comparison to the Toyota customers with the brake recall.
10:35 pm on August 21st, 2010
Yes I agree. And I always thought hybrid owners were so lucky! Sometimes on the road, I still keep an eye out for the VW TDI. They are lucky with the fuel efficiency (but it’s still not electric).