I looked around for this general a thread, but have not found one. I always heard that the failure rate was very low, 10 months after buying a previously perfectly maintained '05, the HV battery is dead. There are so many people talking about rebuilding, reconditioning, dealer, independent shop or DIY--OEM... At what point did your battery die? If only for camaraderie Mine was 10 yrs. 3m., ~133,000 mi. I feel kind of totally screwed...my local shop said that they have been seeing a lot of this lately (West Philadelphia, there are about 2 per block). I read somewhere it could be like 4% Which, seems low, but 5% is one of every 20 Prius owners needing to shell out a lot of cash. I think I am just getting it replaced at the dealership, one wanted lots of money, this second one is quoting the average on here for a dealer quote and said they would try to get me a discount, but calling customer service, they were just like "NOPE!" to any assistance. Wish i had the courage to try to fix it on my own--seems a lot of people are doing that here. I'll update what the dealer finally quotes me.
We have a lot of survey and threads on Gen2 batteries. We do not know failure rates today but around 2012 Consumer Reports did a survey, 2005 MY was about 3% I suspect approaching 10% at 10 years and 150k miles. Only Toyota has the failure rate data and they are not talking. You want a new Toy batt if you can. You can call Toyota USA for assist. Works in some cases. HV Battery Goodwill Warranty Listing - Toyota Prius USA | PriusChat
Oh, they completely dismissed me, twice. I had read that forum and gotten my hopes up. The current dealer i have the car at said they would try going up the chain on their end to get some assistance
Good you just have to keep trying for a while. I do not know if internal policies have changed with the new 3 year warranty
eventually, it will be 100%. some people theorize that time is worse than mileage because of the luck of some vancouver hi mile taxi's.
WOW, those Civic rates are horrible. And the Prius rates should be encouraging. The worst Prius rate is for the oldest, as would be expected.
I've never personally encountered anyone who has had one fail. It's a definite shame for those who have it happen, but I think we're too prone to falling into the worry trap after seeing failure reports online. Sure, there is a significant number of failures but the actual failure percentage out of the number of cars produced should be the focus. I feel that we have nothing to complain about, considering the overall reliability and cost-to-own statistics of these cars. Imagine owning something from Fiat/Chrysler and trying to keep it a while (or just a few years!)--then there'd be plenty of grounds for complaint!
Yep. While the chemistry and performance characteristics are essentially identical, and the manufacturer is the same for both, the isolated nature of the "D" cell based Honda subpacks vs. the "joined" nature of the Toyota prismatic modules makes them more prone to imbalance and failure. Couple that with the more aggressive depth of charge (20-80% vs. Prius 40-80%), and it only gets worse. The Honda "patch" uses a more conservative battery management method closer to the Prius. The 06-08 got immediately worse due to the higher power IMA motor. 09-11 took a complete crap because Panasonic divested its 50% ownership with Toyota. There was also a dramatic reduction in the need for industrial grade "D" cells. Once "Primearth" (80% toyota/20% panasonic ownership) started making Honda packs, their quality took a complete nosedive. It's so bad that Honda extended the CARB warranty to all 09-11 models (10yr, 150K miles) likely to avoid another class action lawsuit. Merged . Come on now... Comparison with Fiat/Chrysler is setting the bar WAY TOO LOW
Battery life can be significantly extended if they are properly maintained. It's unfortunate that the vast majority of people don't even know that's possible. We are working to change that misconception
The hybrid batteries with the highest failure rates seem to involve overheating (obstruction of cooling / blocked vents or living in a hot climate) and infrequent use. Anyone wowed by the price of low mileage vehicle that's approaching 10 years of age should expect to be replacing the hybrid battery. The vehicles that are daily drivers: cabs, rideshare, even long-commute vehicles can surpass 300,000 miles on the original battery. Currently approaching 259,000 on my '05.
1+ Don't be worried about Civic failures - Honda has a different system that's just not as resilient as Toyota's.
