Prius Battery

The highest mileage I've seen on a factory battery was 240,000 miles on a 2004. I wish I had saved that article, because I always have people asking me this same question.

BTW, even if it did have to be replaced after 5 years, it would be done under warranty.

 

Toyota warrants the Hybrid Batteries for 8 years or 100,000 miles, many cab companies in both the U.S. and Canada use the Prius for cab duties, you know how many miles a cab company puts on their fleet vehicles, if their batteries had to be replaced often, it would NOT be economically feasible for them to use the Prius in that capacity.

In addition, salveged Prius Hybrid Batteries are readily available, and relatively inexpensive.

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

If batteries were a problem, I think we'd hear a lot more complaining (and salvage batteries would be a lot more expensive). Also, Toyota would have to pay out a lot of money seeing as they give a 150,000 mile battery warranty in states with California emissions standards.

The way I see it, the battery is like a transmission. If I buy a Corolla, I don't expect to replace the transmission before 170k miles. If I buy a Prius I don't expect to replace the battery before 170k miles. Of course there can always be cases of parts failing early, but that's a chance you take with all cars. I'm sure a Lexus or two have blown their engines before 100k miles.

 

maomao ..... Try not to pay too much attention to people that do not know what they are talking about .... notice, it is ALWAYS negative.

Good comments above. I believe that Toyota has continued to improve the hybrid system and the battery. Give yourself a few months behind the wheel and you will discover that you are a loyal supporter.

Happy motoring.

 

the 04's been out 5 years now, and i haven't heard of any batteries dying. i have an '04 and mine's still running great with no problems! i would think if the '04s lasted this long what more the new 3rd gen batteries?

 

A friend and co-worker of mine has a 1st generation Prius (2001-2002) that he has owned since new and it still runs like perfectly on its original battery. Don't believe the naysayers ! Also, as stated, battery failure at 5 years would be covered under warranty, which is 8 years, 160,000 km for hybrid related components including the battery (in Canada - similar for US).

 

maomao,

I believe that part of this misinformation is caused by dealers who dont sell hybrids. When shopping for my civic, I visited dealers from several car companies. I talked with them about hybrids. Interestingly, those who did not offer hybrids had bad comments about them, including limited battery life expectancy. They dont sell hybrids - they will tell you anything to keep you away from them.

 

180k and still going strong. No worries. Try to enjoy your new baby.

 

The 2001-2003 Prius have had a non-negligible HV battery failure rate. I guess 1 to 10% so far, but would sure like to nail that down better.

The battery cells were redesigned for the 2004 model, and have so far proven much more reilable. Toyota has published a teeny-weeny number for them, but I forgot it. Way less than 1%

Fearful characterizations of the Prius HV battery are either based on the earlier design, or they are misleading (whether inteded to be so or not)

 

There have been some problems with the first generation Prius batteries, but the 2nd generation Prius has been fine so far.

Of course, only time will tell if these batteries will hold up. It's still too early to say based on the data we have so far, since most of the high mileage Prius are used under driving conditions that do not represent the typical driver.

 

Priuses are turning up in fleets everywhere. The city of San Antonio bought a large number of them last year. I have yet to hear of any of them having any problems, and the city's maintenance facility is near my office.

Also, a Prius with 272,000 miles was for sale here recently on Craigs List. Gone (sold) in three days!

If fleet managers were having problems (municipal and taxi fleets especially) we would be hearing about it.

Joe

 

The Prius has two batteries:

• 12 V, car battery - this one tends to last 3-5 years, just like regular car batteries. It is about $150-180 if you get it from Toyota because it uses a metric terminal post. Some have paid less using a battery kit and other have put in a stronger battery with a 10 year life for ~$200. This battery operates the control computers and standard accessories.
• main traction battery - so far, we don't have a good handle on what leads to their failure. Some have been replaced under warranty and other by salvage packs from wrecked cars. So far, it looks like heat is the enemy but the numbers remain small. Since the redesign in 2004, they are much improved.

The following photo shows the pre-2004 battery module with the redesigned one below:

You can see the newer battery has a much thicker body compared to the original. This article from August 2008 reports ". . . Toyota says its out-of-warranty battery replacement rate is 0.003 percent—or one out of 40,000 Priuses—for the second generation Prius. . . ."

You are more likely to lose the car in an accident than lose the traction battery. Near as we can tell from industry literature, a little less than 2% of all cars go to salvage each year. These often supply a lot of salvage traction batteries and they are readily available on Ebay. Check the completed sales for the 'fair market value.'

Bob Wilson

 

Yep, in CARB states, the HV battery is warranted for 10 years/150K miles.

As usual, it sounds one of the usual hybrid myths being perpetuated by non-owners.