Have any Gen 1 owners installed the HV battery replacement found at NewPriusBatteries.com ? I found the site and visited the thread in the gen II forum. It looks like a real good deal even though for the Gen 1 it requires the installer to do custom work on the wiring harness. Ed K
I'd be VERY surprised if anyone says yes. Why? Because only 1 has been sold and it is not due to even clear customs until at the end of this month. I get tons of questions from Gen-1 owners. And I tell everyone of them, go buy the original Toyota battery. The reason for this is because there are lots of extra modules required in the Gen-1 versus the Gen-2 and Gen-3. This makes the price from me much more expensive. You can see the $2165 vs $1600. Toyota on the other hand seems to subsidize the pack, you can get the Gen-1 pack (before Jan1 2018) much cheaper than the Gen-2/Gen-3 packs. Now they are about the same last I checked even though the Gen-1 has more modules. On top of that, the connectors that go into the ECU are hard to source and require purchases with 10,000 pieces minimum quantity. It is unlikely that I will sell 10k Gen-1 packs, so to make a completely custom harness for a kit that comes out to be 40% to 50% more expensive and isn't original just isn't good practice for me. I am not out to grab money from everyone. If you have a Gen-1 your best bet is to go to the dealership and get an original battery. The customer that got the kit I had told previously and they went to a dealership that tried to price gouge them and wouldn't budge. I think the purchase is a bit of a stick-it-to-em style, as I always advice Gen-1 customers to not be my customers but Toyota's.
I have to admit it is intriguing. And by what the website shares, it's looks do able. But it's a big price to pay for something that may be a dead end for Gen 1 owners. Factory replacement batteries DO have new modules, of fairly recent manufacture. And it looks like I could get a new battery for in the neighborhood of $1950 plus core, tax, and maybe shipping. And it would be guaranteed to work. I know it's not rocket science, and I could probably make their kit work, but the easier plug and play factory version is less expensive, so why pay more?
Thanks for clarifying the GEN 1 situation. I'll take your advice and go Toyoto. I'm pretty sure, vis-a-vis the discussion in the Gen II thread about Toyota selling battery packs to DIYs, that I won't able to go that route with the dealers here in Albuquerque. We had to replace a battery in a 2002 in 2013/14 and as I hazily remember, it was less then $2400 including ttl at the dealer I frequent. But I will be sending business your way when we have to replace the batteries on the 2007 and 2009 in my extended family. I hope your supply does't get cut off as a result of the latest tariffs and embargoes on Chinese products. Ed K
Should be cheaper now if you're doing it yourself. Keep in mind the warranty if you do it yourself is 1 year vs. 3 years if the dealership does it. Sometimes that cost is worth it for people. It has already been effected by the cheeto. My customs importations from China to the US have gone from within hours to 2-4 weeks. And the same on the import side into China, hours to 2-4 weeks. I've lost lots of time and money from this across many businesses.
