When we bought our leaf, the manager of the dealership seemed to think that in the future, there may be replacement batteries sold with increased range? 110 miles+. I looked at him with a sense of skepticism as I don't see how this would be a good business move for Nissan. My guess is that no matter what, they will only keep selling replacement batteries with the 84 miles of range that currently exists, although possibly the price will drop below $5500 over the years. Why would they offer someone an option to keep an older car when they'd rather just put you into a new model? What does everyone else think? Seems like there could be a few variables to consider which may effect this.
(1) What if the technology used in the existing leaf battery becomes too expense compared to newer tech? This might make it more cost effective if you sell batteries that have increased range instead.
(2) What if dealer lots are flooded in 3-5 years with lease returns that they simply can't move with 84 mile range (or less if degraded and not swapped by dealers) batteries. If you can buy a new leaf with 150 miles of range at that point, who is gonna buy a used one? They may have to up the range on replacement batteries to get them off the lots?
(3) Environmental concerns of unsellable used leafs after 3-5 years. If new models have significantly more range and nobody wants the old leafs, then there are some serious environmental concerns of a car that has been driven for 50-60K miles and basically being unsellable. Most gas cars are re-sold time and time again until close to 200K miles before being scrapped. The environmental waste that would entail a <100K life span on a car would be astounding if you had to junk it! Seems like that would defeat the purpose of driving an EV in the first place.
(1) What if the technology used in the existing leaf battery becomes too expense compared to newer tech? This might make it more cost effective if you sell batteries that have increased range instead.
(2) What if dealer lots are flooded in 3-5 years with lease returns that they simply can't move with 84 mile range (or less if degraded and not swapped by dealers) batteries. If you can buy a new leaf with 150 miles of range at that point, who is gonna buy a used one? They may have to up the range on replacement batteries to get them off the lots?
(3) Environmental concerns of unsellable used leafs after 3-5 years. If new models have significantly more range and nobody wants the old leafs, then there are some serious environmental concerns of a car that has been driven for 50-60K miles and basically being unsellable. Most gas cars are re-sold time and time again until close to 200K miles before being scrapped. The environmental waste that would entail a <100K life span on a car would be astounding if you had to junk it! Seems like that would defeat the purpose of driving an EV in the first place.