Battery Differences?

There was a chart here on PriusChat from 2009 or 2010 that showed NiMH last longer in warm climate. Can't seem to find that post. Hopefully the Lithium battery won't degrade in warm climate like they did for the Lithium-powered Nissan Leaf.

 

battery chemistry is proprietary. for this reason, the only thing we know is: nimh has a proven track record.
li-on has only been in pip for 4 years with no issues, but in europe somewhat longer.
toyota has to warranty the li-on in carb states of 10/150, so it is unlikely they want the failure rate to be worse than nigh, at least for that long.
lastly, toyota is very conservative with their battery usage percentages.
for these reasons, i would be willing to take a chance on li-on. oh wait, i already did.

 

Only 40% of SOC is used in NiMh while Li-ion would use 80%+. Li-ion can handle deeper cycling so it gets away with smaller capacity.

Weight is advantage for Li-ion but NiMh performs better in cold weather.

Power difference when the battery is low should be better for NiMh since one pip battery icon means near 40% while Li-ion near at 15% state of charge.

 

Also, NiMh can be reconditioned at each cell level with various charging techniques. There are numerous third-party companies that can recondition the Prius NiMh if it were to degrade. It won't restore the cell back 100%, but close to it. You cannot do this with Li-ion, you'll have to replace the whole thing. However, I believe the Li-ion in the Volt is split into modules where they can be serviced individually.

 

I wonder if one could put the new lithium battery into a gen 2 or gen 3 with some type of a kit installed, possibly down the road from now??

 

indubitably.

 

When the battery state of charge is low and outside temp is really cold, you don't want to be in lithium battery Prius.

 

toyota has probably figured a workaround.

 

"A Toyota representative said that if the li-ion battery pack gets to below -29 degrees Fahrenheit, it doesn't work right, and the car itself might not be able to function because the battery is an integral part of the powertrain."

2016 Toyota Prius First Drive

 

better not sell them in minnersoter.

 

Not in whiskysconsin.

. No! No! No!

 

Hi guys, i open again this question because here in Europe we have only NiMh option for new prius and it is notre the eco version that we have. The car is fully equiped and quiet expensive 35k$. So when i saw on priuschat some thread saying that the idea is to put li-ion when the car is equiped in order to compensate weight from equipment, it's seems that is not the real reason from Toyota regarding the european version. I think it's more an economical reason....do you have some infos coming from Toyota official saying the real différence? i mean i think there is a gap of battery behavior when the car is running maybe the NiMh is not as efficient as Li-ion... I don't know. Do we have official infos regarding efficience différences?

 

I do not believe we have much info from Toyota, except minor weight difference.
The USA models show equivalent MPG for NiMH vs. Lion
The 2 eco model with Lion has +4 MPG but we are not sure why except tire/pressure differences.
We do not know cost difference for replacement yet.

 

If you're not a fan of the white interior trim, I believe the 2 omits it. The only level, actually. Not as serious as battery tech I know, lol.

Visual Tables of Gen4 Package Combinations | PriusChat

Strike that: according to the above, both 2 and 2Eco omit the white trim. Hmm.

From video here:

Looks like while the preponderance of white trim is omitted, the trim around shifter is still white.

 

What sort of taxes are on the car?

Bob Wilson

 

As far as why EU has NiMH, I don't know if it could possibly relate to patent issues or what. They don't tell us anything around here. We are like mushrooms here (kept in the dark).

 

And fed you-know-what.

 

I didn't really have details but i guess importing cars from japan with EU laws may increase price with some sort of tax. Auris Hybrid produced in EU have a price set really low comparer to prius. I read infos from french automotive magazine that EU version has 'windshield thermal version' to reduce AC clima use and regarding that they can put NimH battery because Toyota has lower price on this tech. I don't know if it is truth or not so i was expecting to find it there with the specialist ^^. In my mind, power delivery from NimH or Li-ion may be different so if i am @ 100km/h may be the NiMh help less to shut off ICE compared to Li-ion..
i'm searching official tech infos regarding real difference beetwen the two types and not only weight, size or price but i'm intetested on behavior of the two types during accel/brake phase or highway phases. It seems really weird if they have the exact same behavior, no?

 

I am sure they have different inherent behavior, but Toyota engineers have all kinds of design parameters to control, so at this point we are not advised of a big difference as far as Prius workings.

We know Lion has the flammability issue, but that is largely under control/engineered well it seems as far as car use. Presumably Lion is more expensive but may last longer so we have no trade offs at this point. Perhaps more info will emerge as US drivers compare NiMH v. Lion driving on the Gen4 Prius.