In the last few years’ Malaysian car buyers have been the benefactor of lower priced hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) cars. The high taxation on imported cars has prevented many urban Malaysians from enjoying the luxury car ownership until a ‘creative manipulation’ in our import tax structure allowed mild hybrids like the Audi A6, Mercedes E300 Hybrid and PHEV vehicles to be sold at a very low price. In fact, some of the luxury models sold in the past 4-5 years put Malaysia on the world PHEV map as one of the top 3 countries in the WORLD for PHEV car sales.
Now, after a few years of ownership, the buyers of these cars…totaling an easy 20,000 plus units are starting to sweat and worry as news of super high battery replacement costs and high price AC/DC converters start circulating social media. One recent report shows the cost of the hybrid battery replacement for a German sedan to be near RM120,000 which is about the price of the sedan in the used car market (RM130,000 to RM150,000). AC/DC convertors are costing between RM12,000 to RM28,000.
Seeing this we contacted Volvo Cars Malaysia, Mercedes Benz Malaysia and also BMW Malaysia to find out the cost to replace their hybrid batteries as they sold the most PHEV’s in the past few years. Only BMW Malaysia and Volvo Cars Malaysia responded and here we have the replacement battery prices for the BMW 330e, the 530e and the X5e.
Thankfully, it is not as scary as we imagined and we want to share this information with you for you to have a peace of mind (if you own a BMW PHEV) and share with your friends who own a BMW PHEV.
All BMW PHEV vehicles get a 6-year or 100,000 km warranty and the BMW i8 supercar enjoys a 8-year or 100,000 km warranty.
The BMW PHEV battery is a modular battery system and so the cost of one battery module is RM7,300 and depending on which BMW PHEV you drive, they have 5-6 modules in one battery pack. So, you are looking at a total replacement cost of between RM36,500 to RM43,800 if you need a complete battery change. Labour costs at any BMW authorized service center is RM1,140 for one module change and for the 3-Series and 5-Series it is just RM1,300.
Please note that under the BMW Warranty program, this labour cost would be lower, of course.
Well done to DSF and to BMW Malaysia for disclosing the PHEV battery module costs upfront. It’s a very hot topic in the last 72hrs. This gives customers and potential buyers an informed decision before making the plunge to purchase a PHEV vehicle. Kudos to DSF and BMW Malaysia!!!
Thanks to DSF and Kudos to BMW Malaysia for disclosing the PHEV battery module cots upfront. So, customers/ potential customers will decide with an informed decision ala caveat emptor “let the buyer beware”. Kudos to BMW Malaysia and DSF!
Basing on all d cost involved in replacing d battery, there is little saving in using a hybrid or PHEV car. V might as well continue to use a petrol-driven car.
Still crazy expensive. As guideline, auto li-ion battery should price rm1000- 1600 per kWH. Give 100% profit margin, should be around RM3000 per kWH
However, BMW & MB owners should know their car is a sinkhole when they’d decided to purchase, regardless of model. They charge rm200 for a 80cents screw.
Nothing to be praised, this is an abvious bmw driven sponsored post.
Nope, this is not a sponsored post.
What is Volvo response?
I leased a bmw x5 hybrid 2 years old. Have had one battery module replaced, and the regular battery and now its in the garage again displaying diagnostic faults they don’t understand. Top Bmw battery guy said replace another cell charge run down. hope to ger it back today/tomorrow. Disappointing.
Thanks for the info. I live in the USA, but your information is still very useful. I was considering buying a BMW X5 4.5e hybrid next year, but the battery price on the Tesla is far, far more reasonable. On top of that, I have not seen any battery failures on 160,000 mile vehicles.
At 50000++ km, i already change all 5 battery module for BMW 330e.
Mohamad, how much is cost ?
How about the Volvo PHEV battery replacement cost
Can i check is this 6 years warranty applicable to X5 40e?
My car is 2017, now AB is charging me RM30k for a convertor replacement.
Exactly the answers that I was looking for. Tq.
Was planning to get a 2019 740le or a 2017 s400l hybrid.
Do u have any specific info on how much it’s gonna cost for the battery replacement of these vehicles? 😁
Erm…. the Volvo battery replacement cost how, aar?