QUOTE(mavericko @ Nov 22 2019, 12:33 PM)
Hi many thanks for your detailed response, very helpful indeed. I hadn't thought about the number of charge cycles possible for the battery pack. No wonder most owners are trying to sell their cars around the 3 year mark. By that logic it may be a good idea to go for a car which has done lesser mileage vs a car that may be a newer car but with mileage as more mileage means possibly more battery usage.
To your earlier point, both x5 and Xc90 come with 9-kWh or 9.2 kWh lithium-ion battery. So are we saying these batteries will have 500 charge cycles or how would we know how many cycles can these batteries be charged.
To check battery capacity sometimes I find people saying on full charge the car can run 20km whereas a new car was supposed to have a full capacity of 30k. So that may be a way to estimate the batteries degradation? Is my understanding correct?
Many thanks for your insight.
Read the manual and pick out the parts that need to be replaced/serviced, some things arent in the manual like tyres. So 3 years is too soon for tyres as you look at thread depth and age (6 years, whichever comes first). In the case of 2nd hand cars, always assume that its being sold because seller is passing on high maintenance cost to buyer and that something expensive needs to be serviced soon but isnt known to the would be buyer (car drives fine, no signs of it, but 200km later breaks after bought because of part that needs to be serviced), basically just look out for this. Hence why the manual (can be google searched, but forms a big part of the value of the car), and the service manual are very important. Before you go, read the manual beforehand to list what to look for, but also list general stuff like tyres too that wouldnt be in the manual (these have separate guides). Sometimes the problem may not be in the manual but is a flaw in the design that cannot be fixed so researching a modal can help.
if the car is older than 6 years, look at what brands the tyres are and their wear, there is an indicator for the tyre for its age too, but for 3 years not a problem. Try to find that catch before you buy. The fact that the car is under warranty is good, just make sure to get the batteries changed before it is up, so make sure you drive it a lot.
Just remember that despite mileage being a factor for battery use its not a determinate factor. If someone drove a phev from KL to johor every day the mileage will be high, but it may use the battery less than someone who drives 10x less distance in city where the battery is always being used. Typically with such small capacity batteries if they are not NIMH i would complain to the brand if you buy brand new. Demand is important and we need to demand better that other countries get when buying new rather than be a dumping ground.
QUOTE(BigMan123 @ Nov 22 2019, 02:12 PM)
Look at iPhone battery. After 2.5 years it’s close to dead. Any batteries works the same way...
The batteries in cars are a lot better than that. If a phone battery is rated for 500 cycles, a car's lithium battery usually goes for about 700 for lithium, double for NIMH. Toyota prius should use NIMH, but if they changed to lithium thats worse as in other countries they use NIMH which lasts twice as long as lithium, but less capacity.