What happens when an electric car's battery loses its juice completely? Well, you either replace the battery or get rid of the car entirely. For those who bought a Model S, Tesla has got your back and has guaranteed the battery's usage for eight years. But when it comes to the Nissan Leaf, well, replacing the battery sounds like it's going to be an expensive undertaking. Autoblog Green reports that only last year, Nissan tried a $100/month price for a replacement battery.

Nobody was a fan of this proposal, so now Nissan is trying something else: an outright battery replacement that'll cost $5,500. Here's how it works: Leaf owners are instructed to bring their old battery to a Nissan dealer where it'll be swapped for an improved battery with better chemistry. It's the battery found in the 2015 Leaf. The old battery has recycle value of $1,000, but the new battery price does not include tax, installation fees, or the installations kit. The kit itself costs $225. Nissan will offer a $100/month financing program when in the end Leaf drivers will own the battery outright. However, Autoblog Green did the calculations and figured that the overall cost of a new 24-kHw battery pack will cost $6,500.

That's not entirely unreasonable, as the price to the customer comes to less than $270-per-kHw. But still, all cars (especially EVs) depreciate in value, and once you factor that in along with additional $6,500 it'll cost to replace the dead battery, is owning a Leaf still a good idea?