Nissan Will Lose Money With Every LEAF Replacement Battery
Nissan LEAF Replacement Battery
In June, Nissan announced that replacement battery packs for the Nissan LEAF would cost customers $5,500, as long as they traded in the old battery when they made their purchase. This lead to a lot of speculation about how much it might be costing Nissan to manufacture the batteries, with most people assuming that the manufacturing cost must be less than the asking price.
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Not so, says Jeff Kuhlman, Nissan’s vice president of global communications. Although he would not reveal the exact figures, Kuhlman told Green Car Reports, “Nissan makes zero margin on the replacement program. In fact, we subvent every exchange.”
Even though my Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize “subvent” as a word, it is one, and it means that Nissan is subsidizing the cost and actually losing money on its replacement program.
The fact that Nissan is willing to subsidize the costs of their replacement batteries speaks to the company’s commitment to both its product and the green car movement as a whole. Nissan seems confident that electric cars will continue to become more and more popular, and in turn, battery technology should become more and more affordable, with Nissan’s current investment eventually paying dividends.
So far, though, it’s something of a moot point: after the first month, Kuhlman says, “we have yet to sell one battery as part of the program.”
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