Need To Buy New OEM Hybrid Battery

It might be easier to find the nearest dealer on the continent and deal with them.

I will resist the temptation to comment on taking a car model to a foreign country where there are no dealers.

 

use the force ER

SM-N900P ?

 

I'm not going to speculate if the car was imported legally in the first place if you know what I mean.

 

I have never been able to determine why the Internet and public forums bring out the worst in people. It doesn't have to be that way. We could give others the benefit of the doubt, at least. It would seem to be the mature thing to do and it might even help someone.

M

Kay,

Would you please PM me outside of the forum. I believe I have an answer for you. Too long to post here.

Good evening,

Mike

 

OK, so I will violate the rule even further (in your eyes at least): Given your present situation, it would appear that you made a BAD decision somewhere along the way.
If it is as simple as that, just let it drop. By trying to fend off a couple of perfectly honest comments, you just make the matter look worse. BUT.....the main spirit of the forum is to help others and a BIG part of that is explaining your mistakes so that others reading the story won't do the same thing. We are trying to help YOU with your present problem. In the process, you can provide a little help to the community as a whole by explaining your situation a bit more. Don't you think that is the fair thing to do ?

 

Why would you take the time and use the energy to dress someone down when they are just asking for help? Especially since you have no clue what the facts really are? Who are you, the Prius Chat Police?

Now you are making up silly stuff like "BIG part of that is explaining your mistakes so that others reading the story won't do the same thing" . You think everyone should come before the "group" , or at least yourself, in some sort of weird confession mode? Truly strange. You can start by listing every mistake you have ever made so all of us plebes can learn from you.

The only reason you want to "drop" this incident is because you are absolutely out of line and do not have a leg to stand on. You picked a fight for no reason. Why?

The class thing to do would have been to simply admit you made a mistake (you can start your list with it) and move on. Please, after your confession, you can drop what you started.

 

You think correctly.
But, show me how my post was "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable".

The truth is Toyota decided not to import prius to your country. My guess is the battery is not suitable for your climate. Obviously, there are many ways for cars to enter various countries in a gray or black way. I did not say your car was stolen and delivered to you.

 

Who cares how the Prius got to Nigeria? The poster is looking for a battery!

Would it not be cheaper to get it from another African country, Morocco for example, where the Prius is sold and such parts are available.

Btw, the decision to sell certain models is not necessarily the decision of Toyota, it may be the importer. Things operate a lot differently in Africa than in other parts of the world.

 

Actually, Friendly Jack, the truth is Toyota does sell Piri and all parts in Nigeria. Official, factory certified outlets. The problem is that all parts are twice as expensive there as, for example, here. Would you like to spend $6K for a traction battery pack, plus installation? That is where the graft and corruption enters the Nigerian food chain. Part of life in Africa. The world is still a big place with vast differences between populations. As beautiful as Africa is and can be in some areas, other areas are filthy, crime ridden, unhealthy, and far below human health and safety standards.

Your post wasn't one of those terms listed above. It was a smart nice person post that IMPLIED something was up. You IMPLIED that something illegal was going on which would not be unusual for Nigeria but still a prejudicial assumption and implication. It offered no assistance, no solution, nothing positive so one wonders why you posted it at all? Please feel free to elaborate if you wish.

 

Looking at the website for the Nigeria distributor, it does not appear that Prius is a model offered for sale there.
Toyota Nigeria Limited

I had earlier suggested to the OP that he look into the possibility of purchasing a traction battery from a South Africa Toyota dealer since Prius is sold in that country. Apparently he has decided that option is not feasible.

I am wondering whether the OP has tried to contact one of the US Toyota dealers that sell parts at a discount over the web. For example, AutoNation Toyota in Houston, Texas sells a new traction battery for $1,942 plus shipping.
2008 Toyota Prius Parts - AutoNation Toyota Gulf Freeway Parts

I am not aware of a sales channel to purchase a new traction battery other than via a Toyota dealership. Toyota Motor Sales USA has no reason to allow such a sale to occur and that distributor is the sole source of new Toyota-branded parts in the US.

New Prius traction batteries are produced by Primearth EV Energy Company in Japan, which is owned by Panasonic and Toyota.
Development, manufacture, and sale of a hybrid car and the battery for electric vehicles (battery) | Primearth EV Energy Co., Ltd.

 

You are making a mountain out of a mole hill and I will NOT be dragged into a crap slinging contest, especially not over a perfectly innocent comment that is being blown WAY out of proportion.

We will let the moderators decide who it is that is out of line.

 

Should you find that the Houston Toyota dealer declines to ship the battery to New Jersey, then I suggest that you consider one or more of the following:

1. See if your NJ shipping agency can purchase the battery from a local dealer in New Jersey and pick it up from the dealership for you
2. See if the Toyota Nigeria dealer can special order a traction battery from Japan for you, this may be as costly as the South Africa alternative
3. Consider purchasing a used traction battery from a US eBay seller and having it shipped to your NJ shipping agency. Most eBay sellers expect to ship the products offered for sale.

Unfortunately you have little or no recourse if it turns out the battery has a problem, should you purchase via alternatives 1 and 3... Most sellers are not going to be interested in accepting a warranty claim if their product has been shipped across the world, they have no control over how the product has been handled, its storage conditions, etc etc.

 

The online prices at Toyota require you to return your core or they will charge you $1350 for the core. In your situation, it would be best to buy from someone that doesn't require you to return the core

SM-N900P ?

 

This is not what the OP said. I don't have any first hand knowledge what is and what is not officially sold in Nigeria. All I know Wiki states that prius is sold in 80 countries. That leaves a lot of them out.

 

You had asked about shipping batteries. Most of the hub-bub is about lithium batteries since those are the most common and very high in density. The Prius is NiMh. So with the Prius battery you just have to make sure that you pack it in such a way that there is no "dangerous evolution of heat", damage to the terminals, or short circuits. Basically just wrap it in a giant ESD bag, and then go around it in some plastic wrap and bubble wrap and that's about all you need. Also since its DC potential is greater than 9V, you need to mark every box and customs document as "non-restricted" to get it out of the USA.

I have shipped things to Africa before and most of my troubles have been in customs once it gets to the continent. Something sufficiently expensive looking like a nice big heavy box seems to go "missing" more often than not.

You say that your whole pack needs to be replaced, but have you checked the individual cells? You might get away with only replacing a couple cells, and those would be easier to get in and out of the country I would guess.