Battery life factors

Time can also be a factor as is heat. Toyota's warranty in some US states is 10 years and 150,000 miles so they believe in the long life of the Traction battery. My 2004 Prius (in Connecticut) is now 6 years old and has 172,000 miles so far with no battery problems.

JeffD

 

Remember that those figures are for the warranty, not the expected life of the battery. Warranty figures are conservative by design, so it is very likely your battery will last much longer than that.

Tom

 

Typical gas engines have 3 years / 36,000 miles warranty. It does not mean it will die once the warranty is up.

 

Hi Erwin. I've never seen any convincing evidence that time alone is a significant factor in NiMH batteries "life-time" as compared with usage factors, so I'd judge the batteries effective age more by km's driven than by years.

The main "usage factors" which effect the battery longevity are number and depth of charge/discharge cycles and operating temperature.

 

What persuaded me to buy my new 2005 was reading (on this forum) of an individual in Vancouver, BC, Canada who operated a fleet of six Prii in his taxi company (I believe they were 2004 G-IIs). At the time, he was in the process of trading them for an equal number of 2005s. They all were at or above 250,000 Miles (not Kms), having had no maintenance other than regular oil and filter changes, and several tire replacements.

 

As Tom says, those are warranty figures. The CARB states (California et al) require those lengthy warranties that Jeff mentions to achieve the Advanced Technology-Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (AT-PZEV) classification. California requires a certain proportion of vehicle sales to meet ZEV and PZEV classifications otherwise the manufacturer is fined. Toyota has no choice - even if the batteries won't last that long, they must offer the long warranty.

At least in part, Toyota has offered long hybrid-technology warranties to reassure early adopters that they won't have to pay out. In the UK they have now reduced the Prius warranty, for the third-generation car, to five years.

 

In Washington State, which has followed the CARB standards for a few years, a new Prius currently has only the lower 8yr/100000 mile warranty. My VECI under-hood sticker show certification for both US EPA, and a California PZEV PC (Test Group: ATYXV01.8HC3).
Maybe Toyota does have latitude for hybrid component warranty period in some CARB states which they are selling a higher proportion of PZEV Passenger Cars. And if Prius sales continue to strengthen relative to the rest of their vehicles, could more be soon seeing reduced hybrid component warranties?

 

In Washington State we don't get the 10/150k battery warranty because our legislature made us only a partial CARB state. One of the other states is in the same situation.

 

Battery warranty in Australia was recently increased from 100,000km or 5 years to 160,000km or 8 years. That was for all Prius models since Toyota started importing them. Toyota never had to do that to sell already sold car, they could have increased the warranty for yet to be sold car alone. I suspect they did it because they don't expect many claims.

 

Thanks, I think you’re right that WA and PA warranties are currently a little different, even though they are usually considered CARB states.

The recent Washington state law that only model year 2009 or newer passenger cars, light‐duty trucks, or medium duty passenger vehicles (vans and SUVs) with less than 7,500 miles on the odometer must be certified to California emission standards, does not also imply the Zero Emission Vehicle requirement, and associated requirements to automakers to offer additional extended warranties - although I’ve read where the WA Department of Ecology encourages automakers to offer and honor the additional extended warranties voluntarily.

With the apparent regulatory influence on warranties, it’s been reassuring to me to see the owner reports on PriusChat of actual performance for the 2004 and later Prius traction batteries so far. Hope I’m not too much harder on my battery than the average user, trying to squeak out a little better mileage. Guess time will tell.

 

I'm from California and have never heard of WA being considered a CARB state until this thread.

The Altima Hybrid is only available in CARB states and 2010 Nissan Altima Sedan, Altima Hybrid | Nissan USA Official Site says it's "Only available in California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Oregon, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Jersey." Oregon got added recently. If you look at Nissan Debuts Altima Hybrid, Company's First - KickingTires, you'll notice that Oregon isn't there.

If one looks up say the 2010 Prius at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm and clicks on the links to show detailed air pollution info, you'll notice the two different scores (certification standards?) for rest US vs. the CARB states and you'll notice WA isn't in the latter category.

 

This 2008 CARB technical assessment lists WA as one of 12 other states which has adopted CA AB 1493 Standards (the Pavley Rules):

http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ccms/reports/ab1493_v_cafe_study.pdf

Also,

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_emission_standards[/ame]

and

http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/04/...ipe-ghg-emissions-for-nationits-a-good-thing/

Thanks for the link to www.fueleconomy.gov – my take is that this site is only displaying classes within one certification standard, US EPA, but I could easily be wrong. Can you point me to where they define or use the term “CARB states” if they do - I missed that – thanks.

 

If they define it there, I haven't seen it. Just lookup a car, like a 2010 Prius, then click on Show Detailed Air Pollution Information under EPA air pollution score. You'll see the two different standards and you will notice WA doesn't receive the "version" associated w/the cleaner standard