Prius Prime Battery Replacement

why wasn't it covered?

that seems awfully cheap for a prime battery, considering what most dealers get for the lift back

 

Agreed - this should be covered. Was your co-worker a cab driver with 250k miles?

 

At that price, it seems likely that only one of the five stack sub-assemblies was replaced, rather than the complete battery. This wouldn’t be a surprise, if the reason was failure rather than wearout.

 

the reason was failure, some code read out and the dealership stated the failure was something within the battery, but I would have to verify if it was the entire battery or as the other person posted something to do with assemblies. That I can't be certain about. Warranty did not cover due to mileage, he did a lot of ride sharing with uber and lyft with his spare time.

 

Even purchasing 8,800 Wh worth of lithium batteries at retail prices is only around $4,500. Is Toyota charging significantly more than that?

 

This is the company that list prices the cables to the inverter for over $3K USD apiece, and $1500~ apiece for 4th gen head light assemblies

 

$3,000. x 5 = $15,000.?

 

I don’t know what dealers actually charge, but the list price for each one of the five stack sub-assemblies still seems to be $3,336.51.

 

Does anyone know if it’s better to keep my Prius prime premium plugged in or should I leave it unplugged? Especially if it’s not being driven regularly with the current pandemic living telework and then retirement ….

 

Sadly, that new increased mileage warranty started after 2017 lineup

 

That’s not that overly expensive when a plastic taillight cover for a 2017 Prius Prime Premium , costs $400+!!

 

Leaving the car plugged in while not being driven will deteriorate both the traction battery and the 12v axially battery. If you know when you are going to be driving next time in advance of time, then try to plug in immediately before the use allowing the time to charge up off course, or just leave the car unplugged with a traction battery level lower than 50%.

 

leave it unplugged, and mostly discharged. get a 12v maintainer if you're driving less than a couple times a week

 

The ideal state for long-term storage of lithium batteries is a low state of charge. You don't want it too low as that also damages the cells. You're pretty safe anywhere under 50%, and I don't think gains from storing under 25% is measurable for all intents and purposes. So if you know you're not going to be driving for a few days I would try to keep it around 25%. If you're like me and don't always know when you'll have to drive you can keep it closer to 50%. Sometimes I think I'm going to drive more than the 35 miles I can get on a full charge and end up not making the drive. Then I have to decide how long it's going to sit to decide whether another charge cycle or just sitting is going to do more damage. In those cases I really want to be able to connect the car to the house so I can at least drain the car to good use rather than wasting it on an unnecessary drive just to drive down the state of charge.

 

I started at Toyota 11 years ago as a parts salesperson. I can get you a Canadian price for the HV battery if you want however, we've never changed one in a Prime so far and i have enough fingers to count the numbers of HV batteries we changed period. Camry's Prius, etc.. those batteries are reliable. Dont worry about it.