Vancouver EV owner shares cautionary tale after car deemed ‘total loss’
An electric vehicle owner in Metro Vancouver is questioning the sustainability of EVs, after his basically new car was written off due to the cost of repairs.
Kyle Hsu is hoping his story serves as a warning to prospective EV buyers. He says he was left frustrated and saddened by what seemed to be an innocuous incident that scratched the underside of his car’s battery.
He tells CityNews he was in Kelowna recently for a vacation when he felt his 2022 IONIQ 5 electric vehicle “was not functioning very well.” That, coupled with lower temperatures, left him concerned, and ultimately made him decide to have the car towed back to the dealership in Richmond through a service Hyundai offered, Hsu says.
He explains once the car arrived at the dealership, he asked staff to conduct a standard service to address a recent recall of one of the car’s parts.
However, he says when the mechanics began working on his EV, they found scratches on the battery pack — the protective case underneath the vehicle that houses the car’s battery — and a gap between the battery cell and protection pack.
But Hsu doesn’t know how the car would’ve become scratched, saying the service department at the dealership in Richmond told him, “‘You must’ve run over something’ … They told me it was road hazards.”
Due to the damage, Hsu says his eight-year warranty was deemed void, and the entire battery needed to be replaced at a cost of $30,000.
Following the advice of the dealership, Hsu says he took his car to his insurance provider, ICBC, to see how much of the cost he could claim under his policy.
However, a few days later, Hsu says he received a call from ICBC quoting him $60,000 to replace his car’s battery — $10,000 more than the car cost.
Hsu says ICBC informed him that a secondary Hyundai dealership in Vancouver quoted the insurance provider that the cost of replacing the battery would be about $50,000, plus labour costs and tax, bringing the total to $60,000 — double Hsu’s initial quote.
“I can only accept it, right? Because they told me that’s what Hyundai … quoted them. Their battery is so expensive, I was very shocked,” he said.
“If I’d ever known that … without a warranty, or after eight years when the warranty expired, I might need to spend at least $60,000 to replace a battery, I wouldn’t actually buy the car.”
Hsu adds the mechanics looking at his car from ICBC told him they were also shocked.
“I just really want … potential buyers to be aware of the real replacement costs, not just how [dealers] advertise or how they post it online,” Hsu said.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/12/11/hyundai-ev-battery-icbc-cost/