The Polestar 2 is built in China where it costs from 298,350 yuan (just over $43,000), but one owner was quoted far more than that for a replacement battery pack. The owner damaged his dual-motor long range Polestar 2 in an accident and it was deemed necessary to replace the battery pack as it had been dented inward and was no longer safe for use.

When the owner, a certain Mr. Huang, took his damaged car to be repaired at the dealership, he was quoted a whopping 540,000 yuan ($79,200) for a new battery pack to be installed. That is one and a half times more than what Mr. Huang paid for his Polestar 2, which doesn’t sound like it can be economically repaired.

According to CN EV Post, which quotes local Chinese sources, they reached out to Polestar to confirm if this was the going rate for a Polestar 2 battery replacement. They got an official statement back saying that the actual rate was 400,000 yuan ($57,900), suggesting that Mr. Huang may also have been charged for other repairs that were needed on his car.

After getting the official quote from Polestar, Jiemian News reached out to another Chinese EV manufacturer, Xpeng, and learned that the cost of a replacement 80 kWh battery pack for the P7 sedan was just over 110,000 yuan ($14,500), while for the smaller packs in the P5 and G3 they charged 90,000 yuan ($13,000) and 85,000 yuan ($12,300) respectively. Another Chinese automaker selling EVs, Li Auto, will replace the 37.2 kWh battery pack in its Li ONE range extender EV for around 70,000 yuan ($10,100).

In the United States, the cost of a battery pack replacement for a Tesla Model 3 can be around $20,000, while an entirely new Model S pack may exceed $30,000. We have reached out to Polestar in the US to see how much they charge for a Polestar 2 pack here and we’ll update the article when we hear back.

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