I came back in here to see if this rumor was true and it would seem to be the case (battery price increase). With that said, while it stinks, I think some things need to be kept in mind.
1) Nissan is not making these battery packs anymore since they have a new model out. Continuing to make the older packs on an "as needed" basis is obviously going to increase the price since they will not be making them in bulk anymore. This is also for the Leaf - from what I've heard, a pack for something like a Bolt and typical Tesla are twice that price being in the $15K+ range just for the packs.
2) Maybe the packs just need to be viewed as a major repair item for EVs just like an engine or transmission is on an ICE vehicle. Yes, it's outlandishly expensive, but it is what it is. What do people do when they have a crazy high repair bill on their car? Often they will ditch it and move on - people should probably see this as standard practice for EVs as well. An engine and transmission are generally not eight grand, but some can be. It sucks as the cars would probably be next to perfect otherwise, but it is what it is.
3) This is still the biggest hurdle with EVs and it's that battery packs are still prohibitively expensive. Sure, they are coming down in price, but they're still expensive. It's also why I have said repeatedly that I still think EVs are too expensive to go mainstream yet for us poor people. Buying used was, and probably still will be, the path I take when/if I'm able to get into an EV down the road. However, I'm increasingly leaning towards a PHEV over a used Leaf for the very reasons we are talking about. I would not be in a position anytime soon after buying a used EV of any make/model to replace a pack financially (my problem obviously).
I'm personally not convinced that battery packs are going to come down enough in price to negate any of these issues given what they are made out of. Even replacement battery packs for phones and other electronics often cost a significant percentage of what the thing they are powering cost in the first place (not all, but some). I would like to see Renault's approach adopted by Nissan, Tesla, Chevy, and everyone else - knock the price of the battery pack off of the car to start with. So your $30K Leaf (or whatever) now costs closer to $20K (or lower) and allow the purchaser to lease the battery pack instead. Sure, that will add up over time, but you don't have to worry about replacing the pack out of pocket down the road as the company would just replace it as part of the battery lease deal. Of course you could also just lease an EV entirely to begin with, but still. I also expect auto makers to engineer in obsolescence into this tech to force people into new EVs down the road. Like others have said, this opens up possibilities for 3rd party vendors, but that's not a cheap operation to start and demand would have to be high enough. I'd argue the bulk of the people buying EVs at the moment are probably making enough money to simply swap out the car altogether rather than worry about a repair.