It's difficult to assign specific cost to warranty issues on a per-battery basis. The cost to the company for a given battery is a combination of either the buyback price ($6800 in my specific case - yes, my ZBM died, completely, last week, and I opted for a buyback - after some months of continued slow degradation relative to the spec sheet) or the cost of a replacement unit (which I'd hope is less than $6800); plus the cost of shipping the dead unit back to Redflow; plus the cost of shipping the replacement unit (if applicable) to the customer; minus whatever value can be extracted from the faulty unit.
For example, if we hypothesise that the repair for the fault is a relatively simple fix that only takes an hour or so of labour plus a couple of cheap parts, Redflow could refurbish the faulty units for a few hundred dollars, and then turn them around for other warranty jobs - thereby reducing the overall cost of the warranty replacements accordingly. (This is, obviously, close to the best case scenario - best case scenario would be doing the repair on site and not needing to ship a replacement unit out at all. Worst case scenario would probably be extracting the electrolyte, cleaning/purifying it, and re-using it in new units, junking the rest of the module.)
Fundamentally, the problem that I have with the warranty provisions is that the company isn't explaining what's going on in more detail. "We found a problem and we've dealt with it, the fix will be deployed in new units, and in returned units as they come in" would be reasonably easy to swallow. "We don't know what's going on and we hope we've repaired the problem" would be reason to run for the hills. "We've found a few potential causes and we're digging into them" is acceptable, as long as it's narrowed down and fixed properly. This is a big deal - the whispers I've heard suggest that there are a lot of units failing, and I would consider that to be a material matter for shareholders. I get the desire and inclination to bury bad news, but when there are strong signs and the company isn't talking, it's deeply concerning.
That said, there are some indications (eg: the communications I had with the company with regards my battery) that they know what's going on. I'd just like the company to be a bit more open about where things are at, rather than simply saying, in effect, "Trust us."
Expand
(20min delay)