Car battery replacement cost: the battery, the fitting time and your state
Choose the vehicle type and the state: the estimator adds the automaker's test and replace time, at your state's shop rate, to a battery listing.
Battery, sedan, national: typical cost
$235
Range $165 to $486 · 12V battery · before sales tax
| Labor time, sedan | 0.5 h to 0.7 h |
| Shop rate, national | $114 to $159 per hour |
| Labor, typical | $81 |
| Parts, typical listing | $155 |
Compiled by Radif Partners · How costs are estimated · automaker labor times, BLS technician wages, parts read October 20, 2026 · not a quote
A new 12 volt battery fitted by a shop costs about $235 on a sedan at the national median rate of $134 an hour, in a range of $165 to $486 before sales tax. SUVs come to about $232, pickups $255 and luxury cars $258. Here the battery is the bill: about 66 % of the typical sedan figure, with a median listing of $155 for the reference sedans in the catalog read on October 20, 2026, often plus a core charge refunded when the old battery is returned. Labor is brief. The 5 automaker times read pay 0.5 h to 0.7 h to test the old battery and fit a new one, and for the pickup and luxury types, with no bulletin of their own, the estimate uses all of them. By state, the sedan figure goes from about $218 in West Virginia to $252 in the District of Columbia.
A cheap job with an expensive part
Most repairs on this site are driven by labor. A battery is the opposite case. Swapping it on a typical car means disconnecting the negative cable, then the positive, releasing the hold down, lifting the old battery out, cleaning the terminals and the tray, and fitting the new one in reverse order. The time is short, and the money goes into the battery. On the sedan figures above, the battery is about $155 of a $235 typical bill.
That balance changes on some cars. A battery under a seat, in the trunk or behind a wheel well liner takes longer to reach. On many recent cars the new battery also has to be registered with the car's computer, so that the charging system treats it as new; a shop does that with a scan tool. Ask whether that step is needed on your car and whether it is billed.
What automakers pay for the job
The labor times come from bulletins filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in which an automaker tells dealers to test a battery and replace it if it fails. Every one of the 5 usable times found is a Subaru operation, and each includes the battery test. That is why they look alike, from 0.5 h to 0.7 h, the longest one adding new tray and holder hardware.
| Type | Vehicle and engine | Bulletin filed with NHTSA | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan | 2020-2025 Subaru Legacy / Outback, all (start-stop) | Subaru Service Bulletin 07-213-22R, revised 07/08/24 | 0.5 h |
| Sedan | 2014-2019 Subaru Legacy / Outback, all | Subaru Service Bulletin 07-223-23, July 11, 2023 | 0.5 h |
| Sedan | 2025-2026 Subaru Impreza / Crosstrek, all | Subaru Service Bulletin 07-231-26, August 5, 2026 | 0.7 h |
| SUV | 2023-2025 Subaru Ascent, 2.4L turbo H4 | Subaru Service Bulletin 07-213-22R, revised 07/08/24 | 0.5 h |
| SUV | 2025-2026 Subaru Forester, 2.5L H4 | Subaru Service Bulletin 07-229-24R, revised 11/13/25 | 0.5 h |
The vehicles in this table are not the reference vehicles used for the battery prices; those are the Camry and Accord for sedans, the CR-V and Explorer for SUVs, and so on. A Ford bulletin with a short add-on time to fit a battery and reset its monitoring system was left out, because that time can only be claimed with another operation. For the pickup and luxury types no bulletin was found, so the range there uses every time read. The figures are a fair picture of a battery under the hood; a battery hidden elsewhere can take longer.
Battery prices by type of vehicle
The reference sedans listed batteries from $108 to $375. SUVs have a median of $165 and the luxury references $178. Within one vehicle the spread is large because the catalog offers several types for the same car: standard flooded batteries, enhanced flooded batteries made for start-stop engines, and absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries, along with different capacities and brands. A car that left the factory with an enhanced flooded or AGM battery, as many start-stop cars do, should get the same type back; the owner's manual or the label on the old battery says which.
| Type | Reference vehicle | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan | 2016 Honda Accord 2.4L L4 | $108 | $140 | $270 |
| Sedan | 2017 Toyota Camry 2.5L L4 | $131 | $169 | $375 |
| SUV | 2016 Ford Explorer 3.5L V6 | $155 | $176 | $375 |
| SUV | 2017 Honda CR-V 2.4L L4 | $108 | $153 | $287 |
| Pickup | 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 5.3L V8 | $126 | $176 | $362 |
| Pickup | 2017 Ford F-150 5.0L V8 | $126 | $173 | $362 |
| Luxury | 2016 BMW 328i 2.0L L4 Turbo | $126 | $189 | $362 |
| Luxury | 2016 Mercedes-Benz C300 2.0L L4 Turbo | $125 | $166 | $362 |
Most battery prices carry a core charge, a deposit refunded when the old battery is handed back for recycling. When a shop fits the battery, it usually keeps the old one, and the deposit then does not appear on the bill. The listings above leave the core charge out.
Is the battery really the problem?
A car that will not start does not always need a battery. A loose or corroded terminal, a fault in the charging system or a starter that draws too much current can look the same from the driver's seat. That is why the automaker operations above begin with a test, and why a shop should show you the test result before selling a battery. If the battery tests good, the cause lies elsewhere: the alternator page and the starter page price the two most usual suspects once a mechanic has found them.
Check a battery quote
Your quote for battery, national
$486
| Hours 0.7 h, reference 0.5 h to 0.7 h | inside the reference |
| Rate $159/h, reference $114 to $159 | above the reference |
| Parts $375, catalog $108 to $375 | above the reference |
| Labor on the quote | $111 |
The state and the fitting fee
Because the labor is under an hour, the state rate moves the battery bill only a little, a gap of about $34 on a sedan between West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The rate of each state is the national survey band of posted shop rates scaled by the technician wage the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there. Some shops bill a battery at a flat fitting price instead of an hourly rate; the quote checker still lets you compare the battery line with the catalog range.