Has anyone on Priuschat purchased an HV battery with Brand New cells from Green Tec? The cells are cylinders not rectangular like the original. Is this better or worse than the original? Does anyone know whether Toyota still used the rectangular cells on their brand new replacements for the Gen3 Prius? I was told by a Green Tec rep that brand new rectangular cells no longer exist and they were all refurbished. Is this true? A local Toyota dealership wants to charge $3,650 installed with a pro-rated seven years warrant. Green Tec would cost $2,200 installed with four years parts and labors warranty. If the quality of both batteries is equal, I will purchase it from Green Tec.
Is the amp-hr. capacity the same as the original? There is wasted space with cylindrical cells compared to square or rectangular ones.
Toyota is competing with after-market battery sellers, so they continue to make and sell brand new OEM batteries at lower and lower prices. Some dealerships sell them for as cheap as $1650... The dealer charges 6 hours to replace... If you're in the PNW I can do it for you in 2 hours @$40 an hour... As for the round batteries by New Prius Batteries or GreenTec they will function in the exact same way, but haven't been road tested for 15+ years, like OEM and perhaps if you live in a really hot climate, they might have less cooling ability.
Ours have the same capacity of 6.5Ah. The others we have tested that are rated at 6.5Ah or some even higher don't even test as half of that. As for cooling, they cool better. Most original packs have the first module failures in the center of the pack. This is because the pack get super hot and has to heatsoak the whole thing before the temp is raised high enough to kick on the fan. By the time the pack thinks it is hot, it is way too hot. With the cylindrical modules you have more even heating and cooling because of that space. The fan will kick on more often and turn off sooner too.
If you're buying new after-market or new OEM the warranty is not relevant... Most all Gen2 Prius on the road have far exceeded their expected lifespans and are still going strong long after a decade.
I purchased and had the Green Tec battery installed at one of their shops. The battery itself cost $1,850 brand new but with the cylinder cells. Green Tec charges $150 to install the battery which took about two hours. I figured if it took them two hours and they do it everyday it would probably take me around four hours. So with tax and installation out the door it cost $2,175. I agree the cylinder cells would turn on the fan faster because as I was driving home on the freeway I can hear the faint buzzing sound of the fan. NewPriusBatteries have the brand new Gen3 for $1,600 but only with a two years warranty while Green Tec offers four years parts and labor. Our original battery lasted almost 200K miles. Hopefully, we won't need to use the warranty but it's nice to know we have an extra two years just in case. BTW, there is a core charge of $750 with Green Tec if you don't give them your original battery. I believe the core charge is $1,350 with Toyota. So that's how all the companies are making all their money by salvaging the used batteries. That's why I am skeptical about buying a refurbished because you are basically getting a used one taking out from someone's car that has gone bad and you have no idea how many miles has been driven on them. The cost between a new and used is around $500 so for me it wasn't worth the risk. It basically cost these companies almost nothing to sell a refurbished battery.
