Should be lots of hobbyists rebuilding their own battery packs - pick up a dead car with no range left and make it like new.
Except, aren't the battery packs a very significant portion of the value of the car? I don't see how you will be able to replace them cheaply enough to come out on top, unless you use inferior battery technology and settle for two-digit range.
Even with a 6X reduction in capacity, that gives me a ~40 mile range (assuming the Tesla Roadster's 241 mile range), which is enough to get from from the house to the coffee shop to the office to the cafe and back home.
At "only" 6x reduction in capacity, you're still looking at $10,000 of battery if you get a Li-Ion battery. I'm not sure of the costs of a lead-acid, but expect 2x the weight of an equivalent Li-Ion, up to 10x the volume, and much less flexibility in shape.
Sure, if you only travel a handful of miles and you don't mind dropping $20k+ on a car with that kind of range, it works. But it isn't a panacea.
"Based on discussions with industry experts and several automakers, the DB Auto team has lowered its advanced lithium ion battery cost projection by about 30% for 2012. Current prices have fallen from $650/kWh+ in 2009 to about $450/kWh now, and DB’s forecast is the price to fall at about a 7.5% CAGR from 2012 through 2020 to about $250/kWh."
And lots others on Google. I don't know enough about it to judge who is credible but I do believe that laptop batteries don't cost as much as they used to. It's not like Moore's Law, but I think prices have been falling pretty steadily.
Except, aren't the battery packs a very significant portion of the value of the car? I don't see how you will be able to replace them cheaply enough to come out on top, unless you use inferior battery technology and settle for two-digit range.