inside are likely undamaged but without diagnostic data it has to write off those vehicles ford and gm tout their newer more repairable packs but the new large 4680 cells in the model y made at teslas austin texas plant are glued into a pack that forms part of the cars structure and cannot be easily removed or replaced experts said in january teslas musk said the carmaker has been making design and software changes to its vehicles to lower repair costs and insurance premiums the company also offers its own insurance product in a dozen us states to tesla owners at lower rates insurers and industry experts also note that evs because they are loaded with all the latest safety features so far have had fewer accidents than traditional cars straight to the grinder sandy munro head of michiganbased munro associates which tears down vehicles and advises automakers on how to improve them said the model y battery pack has zero repairability a tesla structural battery pack is going straight to the grinder munro said ev battery problems also expose a hole in the green circular economy touted by carmakers at synetiq the uks largest salvage company head of operations michael hill said over the last 12 months the number of evs in the isolation bay where they must be checked to avoid fire risk at the firms doncaster yard has soared from perhaps a dozen every three days to up to 20 per day weve seen a really big shift and its across all manufacturers hill said the uk currently has no ev battery recycling facilities so synetiq has to remove the batteries from writtenoff cars and store them in containers hill estimated at least 95 of the cells in the hundreds of ev battery packs and thousands of hybrid battery packs synetiq has stored at doncaster are undamaged and should be reused it already costs more to insure most evs than traditional cars according to online brokerage policygenius the average us monthly ev insurance payment in 2023 is 206 27 more than for a combustionengine model according to bankrate an online publisher of financial content us insurers know that if even a minor accident results in damage to the battery pack the cost to replace this key component may exceed 15000 a replacement battery for a tesla model 3 can cost up to 20000 for a vehicle that retails at around 43000 but depreciates quickly over time andy keane uk commercial motor product manager at french insurer axa said expensive replacement batteries may sometimes make replacing a battery unfeasible there are a growing number of repair shops specializing in repairing evs and replacing batteries in phoenix arizona gruber motor co has mostly focused on replacing batteries in older tesla models but insurers cannot access teslas battery data so they have taken a cautious approach owner peter gruber said an insurance company is not going to take that risk because theyre facing