I'm considering buying a second hand 2008 Ford Hybrid Escape with 36,199 miles. It appears to be in excellent condition. My concern: what can I expect to pay for replacement battery packs, etc? The streets of New York are thick with Ford Escape Hybrid taxis, and many of the drivers have told me that the replacement cost is $9,000. I haven't been able to find an official price, and the Ford dealer is very vague on the subject. Thanks for any answers to my query.

 

I ask a Ford Parts Dept back in '05 when I bought my '05 FEH and they said the battery retailed for $7,000. The cost of installation will vary by location and dealership.

If the '08 FEH was purchased in NY it came with a 150,000 mile / 10yr warranty for the HV battery, eCVT, and DC/DC converter. The HV battery should last much longer than that with SF Taxis going pasted 300,000 miles with no major repairs.

These vehicles may be a good prospect for a plog-in conversion retrofit Lithium battery by the time the original HV battery goes bad.

GaryG

 

Gary, Thanks for your response. I haven't bought the 2008 Escape yet. It's in Georgia. I found it on Ebay, and it looks good. You are very specific on the New York requirements -- how does one discover the warranties available in various states. I am a novice. Madeline (Cineaste)

 

Here is a list of Green States that mandated California Law requirements.

The hybrid components are warranted for 8 years/100,000 miles. In the Green States of California, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont the traction batteries are warranted for 10 years/150,000 miles.

GaryG

 

There are alternatives to a complete battery pack. They are rebuildable and by the time you are out of the warranty, there will be exchange stations that can take yours out of the vehicle and slip in a reman one for $1,000 or so.

Figure there is a 20% chance that you will need a battery pack replacement between 100,000 miles and 200,000 miles. Risk assessment cost = $200.

Some elecrtrical savy folks are rebuilding them at home. Envision a bunch of tubes containing 5 "D"cell rechargeable batteries batteries - replace a bad tube of 5 or go into the tube and find the bad cell and replace it. The hardest part is making sure the connections are good.

 

They use a 5.5Ah "D" cell but now you can get "D" cells with twice the capacity! How/If that will change anything??

 

Are you saying that there are currently available NiMh "D" cell batteries with twice the capacity? I'm surprised Ford would not use them; they would either provide twice the power or half the weight of the current pack.

 

No offense intended, but I'm pretty wary of any statment that says "there will be". That is an assumption, and may not be correct. There has to be a market, and the state of hybrid technology, and (hopefully) battery technology, is changing. The new hybrids are apparently going to use LiIon (maybe some form of LiPoly), not NiMh. It is difficult to say how expensive the NiMh batteries will be when the current standard switches to LiIon.

 

Yes! Look here: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/sh...439ieclgq051v0. I bought a two last year that were MAHA brand.

I think they use Sanyo brand and I'm sure they have the higher capacity available also. All they need is the style with solder tabs. It might require more of a change than just adding larger capacity cells too. I've read that Ford is going to start build their own battery packs instead of purchasing them.

Having had a hobby which involved the use of Ni-MH rechargable AA cells. It seems when they went over the 2Ah size, they have a increase in failure rate or at least lost capacity in all brands too. With that in mind, maybe sticking with the smaller 5.5Ah "D" cells is a matter of lifetime of the battery pack.

 

If we can try to keep the discussion focused on the original topic, the short answer is that, as Gary said, your battery will be warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles. after that, the evidence of owners here and also by the San Francisco taxi experience is that the battery will last longer than that, so it should not be a major concern in buying the Hybrid. The cost or replacing MAY be high (with possibilities of that coming down) but the odds of it needing replacement at all is low.

Best,