expected lifespan of battery?

That's terrific. I was the original owner of a 2002 Gen 1, the car on the right in my avatar photo. I drove it for four years, would have kept it longer however they had a $3,150 federal tax credit in 2006 so that's when I bought my current Gen 2 (car on the left) which is practically like new after eleven years and 130,000 miles.

Remember in those early years when Prius owners waved at each other on the highway, they were so rare? Remember all the people telling us what a mistake we made, that the car will never pay for itself and that the battery will wear out as soon as the warranty ends and cost $6,000 to replace? And real vitriol by so many people, Prius owners in those early days were viewed as snobs who drove self-righteously with their noses in the air looking down on all the gas guzzlers. Did you ever get smoked by a diesel pickup? I did once, there were videos on YouTube of truck drivers proudly smoking Prius drivers. This amazing vehicle proved them all wrong.

 

Never suggest buying a BMW if you care about reliability and you value your assets as those are endless money pit machines. They loose soo much value in depreciation and fall apart as they age.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

2011. mine will be 5 in april.

 

Another factor to consider is the price fall of the Lion batteries 8-12 years from now (if you still have the car and want to renew the battery).

 

It's worth pointing out that, just speaking in very broad generalizations, Toyota tends to be conservative in estimates regarding range and lifespan.

However, I've also seen that Japanese cars in general have a tendency to go along with very few problems for the first 150Kmiles or so, after which it seems like everything fails simultaneously! That might be more true of Honda, for example, than Toyota though...

It's also important, with regard to battery life, not to use experience with laptops and cell phones as a guide. Different battery chemistries, different usage patterns/rates, different cooling systems,...


iPhone ? Pro

 

One thing to keep in mind is the overall maintenance for the Prime. You will find that your car repairs, during the 8 or 10 year reign, will be minimal at best. The battery will perform and do its job just fine. Your are smart to check this out prior to purchase as many are scared away from Hybrid cars because of this. But, looking back on my new car purchases, I always bought another one within 5 years or sooner. So, for me, the 10-15 year time frame (even 8 for that matter) was no problem for me.

 

Have you noticed by any chance the battery SOC before plugging in?
HV portion of battery can be 'full' e.g. just after zero EV miles, or can be 'almost empty' as after driving with no ICE in HV mode for a mile or more. The difference between the two can be 0.5-0.7 kWh on your external wattmeter.
If you intend to monitor change of battery usable capacity in time and use - best to do it from same (or similar) starting point.

 

(Should I start a new thread? Seems wasteful but some places hate bumping).
Now that we've had several more years of experience, has anyone had a Prime battery fail? Fail as in dashboard warning and tow truck.
If so, how many years and miles?
If not, that's interesting and noteworthy.
Asking because if the car is going to give me a $10K+ expense in the foreseeable future I want to save up for it.

 

they have been very reliable. i don't recall reading about any failures, but i could have missed one.
even so, the odds are highly in your favor.
on the whole, all ev batteries have exceeded expectations except for a couple outliers early on in the process.

 

Thank you for the data, Bisco.

 

My 2017 Prime with 153,998 km battery went from 42 km estimated range to 35 km estimated range last month. I checked my EVSE and its power per full charge has been 5.5 kWh since last year so it's not the reason. It dropped after an unexpected round trip to Toronto. Don't know why.