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Yearly market for replacement car batteries

Question

Estimate how many car batteries are sold in the US each year.

Short answer

Roughly 70 to 100 million a year. There are about 280280 million vehicles on the road; a battery lasts around 44–55 years, so replacements are about 280/4.5≈60280/4.5\approx60 million a year. Add about 1515 million batteries fitted to new vehicles, plus boats, motorcycles and early failures, giving roughly 7575–9090 million. Spell out each assumption so the interviewer can follow and adjust it.

Adapted from Crack, Heard on the Street, Q5.5.14, p.55; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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