European versus USA 3rd Gen Prius, what's different ?

Has anyone checked part numbers?

 

No. I don't know where to look.

Since my original whingings and concerns about my battery, Toyota UK have introduced an extended battery warranty of unlimited miles upto 11 years of age (10 years inclusive). It is a free extention of 10,000 miles or 12 months each time you get the car serviced by Toyota OR you pay £40 for the check.

Toyota Warranty | Toyota UK

 

When I check the toyota parts stores catalog, G951047060 shows up for US 2010.
It ranges from $2000 to $4000 BTW.

 

This kind of generalization about the difference in driving conditions between the UK and US is not really accurate. Not everyone lives in San Fransisco, or other places with broad thoroughfares and 'easy' driving. Where I live my commute is 9 miles and includes 1 four-way stop (a mandatory stop) and 22 junctions with traffic lights. My average speed for that commute is typically under 25mph due to lots of stop-starts. The traction battery would get far more of a workout than it would when I lived in Manchester (UK), where my average commute speed was closer to 40mph due to hopping on the M61 & M602. Likewise, just as I have been snared up in traffic on the M6 at Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham, so I have been on I95 around Washington DC. And just as it's possible to get stuck in traffic on two-way neighbourhood streets in London, so it is to get stuck pottering around in a Walmart parking lot or Black Friday traffic at Best Buy.

There are open roads and congestion in both countries (more of both is the US), so it would make zero sense for Toyota to make battery packs that differed due to unsubstantiated assumptions about vehicle usage patterns.

BTW, the kind of battery used in the Prius actually works better and lasts longer when regularly 'exercised', and the vehicle is programmed to keep the charge/discharge cycles within limits that allow them to offer a quite reasonable warranty on the pack.

 

hard to do in my case; 100 mile round-trip commute on a 2 lane country road with pretty much no traffic at all/
I can get the battery to full when I go down a hill for a few miles, but getting it empty? no way..../

 

I've just counted the number of junctions heading 2 miles from my house to the center of town 2.5 miles away. It's 13 with 4 traffic lights and with a maximum speed of 30 mph the average speed is generally 12/15 mph.

Love to see your picture of these narrow streets like you get in a 1950's housing estate here in the UK. You know the one, where you have cars parked hap hazardly all over so you're weaving in and out, on the gas, off it again, on again, off and you pass one or two parked cars at a time before stopping to let someone else passed. Now try that 10 hours a day and you get an idea.

I don't think it's the slow start stop driving like you get on the M62 that kills the HV battery. That's just a steady crawl from 0-15 mph starting and stopping gently (or so) with the traffic. It's the rat run down back streets, alley ways, housing estates 0-30 fast(keeping up with traffic) and 30-0 just as quickly that seems to heat up the hv battery. Do that for the 10 hours as indicated above and you can see why there are issues after tens of thousands of miles. Compare it to someone who heads out on the motorway for a 1 hour commute, driving at 70 mph for 30 mins and then starting and stopping for the remaining 30 minutes. Doesn't compare.

 

Exercising the battery isn't about going between extremes of charge. These batteries perform best when routinely going through fractional charge/discharge cycles, and the car is designed to do exactly that under almost all driving conditions.

I imagine as a former taxi driver that your daily routine involved a great deal of work in Britain's haphazard back streets, but most drivers don't spend all day, every day, doing that. Nor does the kind of driving you describe do anything much to 'kill the battery' - the car has electronics to control battery charge and discharge levels and rates so as to ensure that it isn't overworked or overcooked.

By the way, having lived, worked and driven in both countries, I can compare.

 

Want to swap HV batteries if you've less than 80,000 miles on it? If not, why not?

But it's irrelevant now as we have the 'upto' 11 years HV battery warranty which now covers my car and I'm no longer in the taxi game. I also think the concern with Euro drivers was the much lower HV battery warranty on the early gen3 (5 years/60k miles), something that was corrected earlier this year with the Hybrid Health Check extended warranty.

And if you read the thread about 'Toyota UK following out of love with the Prius', it might be that we'll not have a gen4 Prius to concern about.

 

Anyone from Europe wants to check the part number?

 

If I refused to swap batteries it would be nothing to do with a perceived difference in packs, but everything to do with how the battery has been used. The car has excellent battery management systems, but it is still possible for the driver to use the car in ways that cause more rapid degradation than usual.

Whether or not the 4th generation model is imported into the UK is not really relevant to this discussion.

 

So my 2014 Prius is set to be shipped from California to Luxembourg in a few days. Thus far, the following was done:
* Integrated turn signals were installed into side mirrors
* Euro tail lights (with rear fog light) were installed

As you know, Euro headlights side reflectors are not amber but transparent in colour so...I also order Euro headlights but that's where I ran into a problem. Per initial info my understanding was that 2014 Euro Prius has only LED so that's what was ordered. It turned out my Prius (trim II) simply can't handle LED because it doesn't have LED leveling system. In theory, I could have LED installed anyway and have static headlights (heck, halogen are static). However, vehicles in Luxembourg undergo annual technical inspection (smog check of sort) and I just don't know whether inspection is superficial or rather detailed (in which case absence of leveling system may be noted).

Btw, I saw a posting on one of the foreign Prius forums where a driver managed to disassemble halogen headlights and replace side reflectors after all but proper tool shop is needed for such work.

That's when I took another look at Euro Prius and it looks like basic model sold in Europe does have halogen after all. If that's the case, I am contemplating the option of installing LEDs but risk failing the inspection or buying Euro halogen but getting sub-par lighting. I also need to check if HIDs can be installed. It is after market and, again, technical inspection is a big question mark.

I will know more in a couple of months once container arrives...

 

Yep the 2014+ Euro cars have halogens apart from the top model. They do have led DRL's. Laws on after market HIDs vary and I can't speak for Luxemburg. Be careful with modifications as that can affect your insurance - which is a legal requirement all over the EU and other places. You must have it in force before you use the car on the road.

Again, the amber side reflectors and lights are not a legal requirement but many cars still have them (some Jaguars, BMW's, Mazda's, etc) , so you may have been able to keep them on. The only issue is the amber market lights at the front must be white, which I believe the US Prius are anyway.

Hope you enjoy your time over this way and do take the opportunity to travel around.


Yep th

 

Small update...

The shipping company insists on running fuel tank dry before loading the car into the container. I read somewhere 1/8 of a tank was considered to be safe. Also, battery will be disconnected but that was expected. So I will receive the car with now fuel whatsoever. I hope I will be able to buy a canister of sort, fill it with the fuel, and fill the tank. I very much hope Prius will start once I push "Start" button

to be continued...

 

Be aware that you will need at least 10 litres of fuel to get the car to register it. Petrol is widely available

Let us all know how you get on when you arrive.

 

Talk to a dealer about how to empty the gas tank. Just running the car until it's empty will likely set the "Check Engine" light, and may even prevent the car from starting without clearing the error.

 

I bought 2010 Prius III from US auction last November.
I noticed couple of things which were not mentioned (or I missed them). During repair process we noticed some differences between Prius'es in Europe and USA:
First of all I need to say that most cars imported for parts in my country are from UK, so something maybe cannot be applied for all European cars.

-in my US model there is vapor canister which, according to car parts sellers, is not added to European models (Maybe that could explain why US ECO mode is more aggressive? )

- drivers side rear doors lock is not same same one like in UK model, but we will try one from European (non UK) model and see if it fit.

 

doors lock perfectly fits from European Prius (from Germany).