Battery Frustration

Battery Area on EV Mower
Tequesta, FL
April 15, 2026

 Changing batteries should be easy, right? Even rechargeable batteries should be easy to remove and replace. 

Batteries fail/wear out. We all know that.

If batteries cannot be replaced then the entire unit is no longer usable. 

I discovered that with my Ray-Ban Meta glasses. There was no way to replace the battery and that meant the glasses were no longer functional. 

Yesterday, I assisted a friend in changing the batteries on his EV riding mower. 

The sad part was that it was known that the batteries on this EV usually last only two years. That meant the designers should have known they would need to be replaced. 

Apparently not. 

Getting to the battery area required disassembly of the mower. What should have been an simple battery removal and replacement turned into a complicated mess of screws, nuts, and bolts along with various pieces of trim. The EV was definitely under-engineered focusing on looks and not practicality. 

The worst part of the battery replacement? The replacement batteries did not physically fit into the space allotted on the chassis of the mower. Despite assurances that the batteries would fit--they could not. There was no way to check the fit without completely disassembling the mower to physically access the batteries.

As one who has ordered replacement rechargeable batteries, I understand that there is apparently no standard and each battery and connector is unique. 

The EV mower remains in pieces in his garage awaiting another set of replacement batteries. 

I am a huge EV fan, but this was an unacceptable situation especially knowing that the factory batteries fail after two years. And batteries are not inexpensive. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL