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Originally Posted by curves2000
Has anybody else notice the cost of car batteries go through the roof? Is it just a supply chain issue or has something else gone up a lot, perhaps internal materials?
I may need to replace a few batteries come spring time and I am looking at some prices and it looks to have doubled. Is this accurate? I am talking about regular batteries for Honda Pilot's, Toyota Rav 4's, Honda Civic's etc
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Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_this_city
I bought a battery a month ago and the price was about 10% higher than a year or two ago.
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Shipping costs are the biggest reason for price increase on batteries. One year ago shipping a container of batteries from Asia cost $9000, today shipping the same container costs $40,000. Two strikes against shipping batteries are the weight as well as them being dangerous goods. As a manufacturer/ wholesaler, we had a 10% price increase Sept 2021, the first price increase in over three years. That was followed up by an 8% price increase... today.
Newer vehicles also require more expensive batteries, anything pre stop/ start, a conventional, inexpensive lead acid battery will do. Newer vehicles equipped with stop/ start use basically a hybrid battery do to the amount of cycling the vehicles do. These batteries have a lower CA/ CCA to begin with and shed their plates faster, not ideal for our Climate. The battery life is much shorter in start/ stop batteries especially in our climate.