Quote from GTS:
Guess you haven't priced Lithium-Ion batteries then, that's just how much they cost.
The volt battery is only 16 kWh, the Nissan Leaf is 24 kWh so I would expect it to cost 50% more, e.g. $12k+ (I couldn't find an actual price on the net, apparently its a secret)
The cost of the battery is really the deal breaker with the current generation of cars (and why they are priced so high), they need to get the cost of Li-Ion batteries down significantly or find an alternate technology to store energy.
Here's some interesting information from the Leaf wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf):
"Warranty
The Leaf's battery warranty is for eight years or 160,000 kilometres (100,000 mi). The warranty covers defects in materials and workmanship, but does not cover gradual loss of battery capacity, nor does it cover damage or failure resulting from not following the preventive actions recommended in the Leaf Owner's Manual for the lithium-ion battery, such as exposing the car to ambient temperatures above 120 °F (49 °C) for over 24 hours, or storing the Leaf in temperatures below −13 °F (−25 °C) for over 7 days."
Here's something from the Volt wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_volt)
"In order to make sure the battery pack would last ten years and 150,000 miles (240,000 km) expected for the battery warranty, the Volt team decided to use only half of the 16 kW capacity to reduce the rate of capacity degradation, limiting the state of charge (SOC) up to 80% of capacity and never depleting the battery below 30%.
General Motors also was expecting the battery could withstand 5,000 full discharges without losing more than 10% of its charge capacity."
I am calling BS on GM's claim. No way a battery can do that.
"Lisa in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics" - Homer