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Battery Upgrades

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by iplug, Jan 21, 2016.

  1. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Since "lithium-ion cells have a historic rate of cost-performance improvement of roughly 7 percent over more than 20 years", why not have the option to upgrade them in plug-in vehicles?

    Electric-Car Buyers Expect Battery Upgrades To Be Available


    Seems to make sense from a consumer standpoint. Many hold on to their vehicles for years, so why not have the option to put in a new battery pack with more capacity and lower cost per kWh down the road? If batteries were only expected to last 5-10 years, they could be made smaller, cheaper, and use more of the available capacity.

    Of course auto makers want to sell you a whole new vehicle every few years, so would not be surprising to see resistance from that side. There are also problems with warrantying a battery in a CARB state that gets <10 years.
     
    #1 iplug, Jan 21, 2016
  2. S Keith

    S Keith Senior Member

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    5-10 years is too long to "use more of the available capacity".

    Increased cycle depth greatly accelerates cycle deterioration.
     
    #2 S Keith, Jan 21, 2016
  3. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    It will be not practical for a large longevity of an AUX battery on the Prius line.
    But there are available on the market
     
    #3 mrbigh, Jan 21, 2016
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it's a conspiracy to move you to a new car. they could do this cheaply and efficiently, but remember when they tried it with computers? the idea got squashed real fast by the man.
     
    #4 bisco, Jan 21, 2016
  5. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Plug-in vehicle batteries are expected to last >10 years and are mostly sold in CARB states where such is warrantied. So there is some theoretical room to work here. Nothing tremendous, sure.

    Probably right. But this thread/forum refers only to plug-ins. The lift back (non-plug in Prius) does not apply.

    Well, when computers were big boxes with lots of room and modular parts, the computer makers still preferred you buy the next model, but upgrading was easily doable. Nowadays, you have a computer in your pocket with circuit boards, memory, etc all precisely assembled and all tacked together - something almost impossible to modify without breaking.
     
    #5 iplug, Jan 21, 2016
  6. Boyelectric

    Boyelectric Junior Member

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    Yeah, but third party suppliers can, and do supply great upgrades, even for the most convoluted, and densely packed laptops these days. I do these upgrades all the time.

    There will indeed, be some replacement battery packs produced by someone, that will be plug-n-play into the 1st gen PiP, at some point... we aren't there yet. The issue is that there is such low demand, since the original battery packs still work for the vast majority of PiP owners.

    Within a few years, I am relatively confident that we will see plug-in packs available for a variety of plug-in hybrids, including the PiP. ...maybe even with increased battery density / increased kWh.

    I would buy an upgraded replacement traction battery today for my 2012 PiP, since the new Prius Prime is a huge step in the wrong direction, IMHO, and I absolutely will not be buying one.
     
    #6 Boyelectric, May 5, 2016
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i hope you're right. aftermarket batteries will ease a lot concerns and help sell more plug ins.
     
    #7 bisco, May 7, 2016
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