This is also just the pre-tax price battery alone, and does not include any other associated accessories…

While EVs and their claimed one moving part means general maintenance costs are to significantly lower than its ICE counterpart, those with petrol in their veins would always love to counter that statement by bringing up battery replacement prices. And this is admittedly a pretty potent counter, especially after knowing that replacing the drive battery on a Tesla Model 3 will set one back, are you sitting down…

RM 105,985.76.

More scarily too is that the aforementioned six-figure sum corresponds to the pre-tax price tag of the smaller 66 kWh battery in lower-spec RWD Standard Range variant Model 3 Highland. The larger 77 kWh packs in the Long Range and Performance trims meanwhile will undoubtedly to be a good chunk of change more than that already eye-watering number (Tesla did not divulge the exact price of these larger capacity packs). 

Also worth noting here is that the roughly RM 106,000 price tag is just the cost of the battery alone, with those eventually looking to replace it likely having to fork out more for other associated parts and the labour to do so. This therefore could put the total outlay for swapping in a new pack to possibly be somewhere in the RM 120,000 – RM 140,000 range, which essentially is not all that far off from what the whole car costs these days (especially when factoring all the current discounts on offer). 

Now this rather fiscally-shocking figure here was recently pointed out in a post on the Malaysian Electric Vehicle Owners Club Facebook group (thanks Shahrol Azral for the information), with the price tag on the battery obtained from Tesla’s own parts catalogue.  Those who wish to peruse through how much other parts on one of these EV will cost could do so through this rather fascinating resource, with the site linked here. 

Getting back here to the rather scary replacement battery costs meanwhile, it is worth highlighting that the price tag of this pack is at least pretty much on par with what it would cost elsewhere in the world.  And before the EVangelicals come out of the woodwork to knock this story for not providing adequate context, it therefore should be noted too that the fear many lay-people have of short EV battery lifespans are perhaps slightly over-exaggerated from the actual reality. 

In fact, Tesla is incidentally perhaps the best at proving this point. Such is as there have been numerous stories of the decade-old Model S and Xs still running on their original battery packs, with them still have upwards of 80% of their original capacity even after all these years and hundreds of thousands of kilometres later. 

Moreover, there are of course more cost effective options out there if one’s EV battery gives up the ghost than just ringing up the manufacturer and swallowing a six-figure bill. There are after all already specialists right here in Malaysia who could replace individual dead modules, with the cost to do so being in the thousands rather than running to the tens of thousands. 

Though while likely rare, there will nevertheless be occasions where a full new pack replacement may be warranted. And any involvement with insurance will expectedly bump the chances of it occurring significantly, which is thus perhaps why insurers are tempted to price its coverage for EVs to be higher than ICE cars (though thankfully this is still not to be the case in Malaysia just yet). 

Just providing some column-inches here for the ICE diehards to gloat at the end too, the RM 106,000 figure could probably cover at least 4 full engine replacements (parts & labour on a moderately modern and complicated continental car. It is also more the exception rather than the rule for full engine rebuilds to occur within an ICE-equipped vehicle’s normal working lifespan, with some of the more reputably reliable brands having built their name on engines that could technically run forever. 

At the end here too, it is worth commending Tesla in being one of the few automakers to transparently list out the price of their batteries. Extracting this similar information from other automakers on the other hand is unfortunately akin squeeze water out of stone.