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You can register using your Google, Facebook, or Twitter account, just click here.I guess that is my fear with the hybrids, the battery life expectancy is almost exactly the same as the age/mileage vehicle I could afford to buy. So if I found a $3000 car and had to replace the $3000 battery a week later I just gt $crewed. BUT if the highway mileage didn't go down much without the battery pack, and I just had to deal with crappy acceleration, I might still consider buying one that already has a bad battery for a steal and drive it as-is. My commute is all highway with hardly any slowing down, so if it accelerates like a freight train, I don't care much.To counter some of the FUD dogging hybrids, all the car companies selling them offer very long transferable warranties on the battery. Usually providing full replacement if it fails. No proration.
Replacement improved battery packs for the Insight are about $2000. For the first Prius they are under $2000. For the second gen Prius they are about $2500-3000. Prorate those costs over the 10+ year pack lifespan and it's not a big deal.
I agree that the extra prime mover makes hybrids more expensive than is really practical. Unless you buy used and cheap like I did. I think the Chevy Volt is the best of all the electrics or hybrids, but the $40,000 price tag makes it a non-starter. That's why I'm all-in for the Elio: It's all Gas-Powered Awesome!
A new battery pack is $2000, not $3000, for cars in the $3000 price range. $5000 total for a moderate-mileage first-gen Insight with a fresh battery would be a good price, especially if it's a manual. The trick is to find one that's already had the battery replaced, and not with a Honda battery. Otherwise, you can still get very good mileage battery-less on the highway depending on where you are (your profile doesn't say). If you are in central/south Florida or Kansas, virtually no reduction in highway MPG. Appalachia? You're screwed.
Sooo... then why not just lease the whole car?
With a minimum of test equipment it shouldn't be too difficult, but you'd have to find a supplier of replacement cells for a reasonable price. Then there is the matter of having DEA Jack-boots on your door-mat when you show up in the system buying any quantity of lithium-ion cells.
$5000 for a decent car isn't bad generally speaking, but at my economic level a $3000 car that suddenly turns into a $5000 car isn't an inconvenience, it's a thermonuclear DISASTER! But if the car runs without the battery, not such a big deal. My commute is 110 miles, almost totally FLAT along the shore of Lake Huron. So battery shouldn't make much difference anyway right? I have seen a few bad-battery priusii and such, but not a lot. I guess I expect the battery in my laptop to only last so long, so likewise the same lithium-ion tech in a car. But maybe I do over-worry the problem. Unfortunately I still have to finish paying off the dumb pontiac G6 my wife HAD to have before I can think about anything else.
The cells in Insights and Prii are nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), not lithium-ion.
Ah, I looked up the battery construction, but only took a cursory glance at the first few references and they said Li-Io, guess I shoulda read further. Ni-Mh is a little less finicky about charging and such, and less prone to explosion and fire. Thanks for the clarification.