On a different forum, someone quoted a replacement cost for an Escape hybrid battery of $6,900. Does anyone know the factual cost? Seems high, compared to the costs I've seen for Prius and HCH hybrid batteries. Of course, the cost was used as a hybrid bashing tactic by someone who has little knowledge of hybrids.

 

I've heard the cost is $6500 installed, but that's not much less. If I'm not mistaken, Ford claims to not have had a battery pack fail yet. There are linksin this forum to articles featuring FEHs with 200k or 300k+ miles on their original battery packs, including an entire fleet of New York and San Francisco taxis. Under normal use they're warrantied to 100k miles or 8 years. It's not something you should have to worry about much for the life of your car.

 

My dealer here "claimed" they replaced one after the engineer told them to. But I dont think they know what they are doing with the hybrids.

 

I've heard of 2 or 3 being replaced right after delivery of the vehicle... basically the owner found problems in the first 100 miles, and Ford realized it was a factory defect of some sort from the get-go and swapped it out.

I've never heard of a private owner needing a new battery after it has been road proven for a few weeks / 1000 miles.

I think they are expensive because Ford really does not have any to spare. Quite possibly, you taking a 2nd battery will mean one less FEH off the assembly line. It's not like water pumps where they can make 100,000 cars and 105,000 water pumps. There's just no "extra" packs layin' around! -John

 

There is a growing field of hybrid battery technologist who repair/refurnish used hybrid batteries. This will provide alternatives for the consumer.

 

I was thinking that if mine ever goes bad and it's out of warranty, I'll try to get my hands on a couple hundred NiMH D-cell batteries and try to repair it myself.

OK, maybe that's not such a good idea. I'd probably electrocute myself.

 

each cell has to be matched. In other words, the electrical charactoristics must all be close to each other. If not, indivicual cells may not charge/ discharge properly.

 

The battery packs are purposefully programmed and made so that they'd outlive the life of the vehicle, as John mentioned, no one has had any problems with a functional batteries operational lifetime.

 

if you did need to replace your battery pack and your out of warranty, it will cost $9300 for the pack itself and the about another $400 to have it instaled.

 

That is for current prices. Who knows what the price will/would be in the future? As noted before, there is a growing field of individuals who "re-work" used hybrid batteries and this will provide the consumer with an alternative to the dealer installation.