We're planning on a four - or five - year / 100, 000 - mile warranty, and the
battery replacement pack will cost a
small fraction of what it costs today.
If Toyota wanted to do something clever, it would take a page from the Tesla / Fisker strategy book and introduce series plug - in hybrids and electric cars as luxury vehicles since the extra costs for the
battery and R&D; would be a much
smaller fraction of the total price compared to, say, a $ 30k vehicle.