Featured You are Worrying about the Wrong EV Battery

This goes all the way back to the G2s

 

One variable manufacturers cannot account for is downtime.
A reasonable assessment of average downtime has to be factored in to size the battery considering the battery draw with the car off and potential effects of extreme climate.
We’ve never had an issue with 3 Prius and 3 hycams over a 20 year span.
Issues started showing up in gen 4, and seem to have gotten worse in gen 5.
Judging from the bolt owners forum, Chevy seems to have done a good job engineering the 12 volt system

 

I currently run 2 hybrids, had a hybrid before them. Zero 12v issues. Perhaps a relatively mild climate and relatively frequent use. I do suppose they were parked for a 2 week period sometime in their lives with me.

My 5.8 year old Rav4 hybrid got a new 12v battery at 5+ years just because I felt it was time. No symptom or problem prompted my paranoia beyond I am a storm tracker and have been responsible for knowing the condition of our roads so while others are safe at home, I'm out in all kinds of weather. Her Avalon hybrid of 4 years still has its 12v original battery.

My Prius v '12 12v battery lasted to the 7 year 60k mark when I sold it.

Maybe Toyota uses the right batteries and has learned battery management by the time I started buying?

 

The Gen 4 used a regular flooded battery under the hood. Thay have a shorted lifespan that AGM. From late 2016 to late 2024 I replaced my pabbety once in my 2017 Prius Two.

 

When my son had his 2005 Prius, he replaced the AGM battery after 8 years because he did not want to get stuck. It still worked fine, but he figured it was running on borrowed time.

 

I wonder if the designers call for one type of battery, then production uses another type without telling anyone. A management system programed for one might shorten the life of another.

Also can't escape lead is heavy. The factory battery might be undersized as part of a weight cutting effort for fuel economy testing.

 

Exactly... Wish we still had old @Britprius the battery expert around... Having lived his life in a wheelchair he knew the battery that powered his chair was better suited for a Prius than an OEM. Those of us who took his advice at times got up to a decade of life out of a 12v., because as the article says: "Many are switching toward deep-cycle batteries, which are worse at handling the high-current demand of starting an internal combustion vehicle, but better suited to being depleted more often."

Of course the problem still remains with G2 Prius because the DC to DC converter gives a pathetically low amp charge to the 12v when the car is running.

Long ago when your 12v battery died, you'd get a jump start and they'd tell you to drive the car around for 20 minutes before turning it off to recharge it But in an old Prius you'd have to drive it around for 8 hours to get the same amount of charge.

Perhaps the root of the problem is that a gas engine with an alternator can produce huge amounts of excess energy and with an old school lead-acid 12 volt your didn't have to worry about dumping too much power into it.

But now that the alternator is in the electric motor powering the vehicle directly there's lots of times when it's accelerating and consuming power and only generating power when decelerating and all the designers keep underestimating how much of a problem that can be...

 

Perhaps it is time to stop delaying the switch to 48V systems. It was considered in the past because of increasing loads from accessories, but the suppliers managed to make those more efficiency instead. Well, we've just been adding more accessories.

 

Same here, regardless of whether it was Lexus Hybrid / Toyota hybrid / GM hybrid / Chrysler hybrid. Never changed the battery until a minimum of 6 years old. Maybe just lucky?
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The newer ones have all thau always on subscription stiff with the app. They need to keep checking in with cloud servers. That costs electrical drain, among other things.

 

I suspect an exponential increase in 12v systems would create more problems than it solves. Cybertruck is not doing well with most aspects of this system.

 

The Cybertruk can have its stainless steel skin peeled off and lose its bumper when towing. I would not use it as an example for any other system.

48V mild hybrid system use is expanding, and will become the typical car in much of the world's auto markets. Is there a reason to stick with 12V when a company's production all have a 48V system onboard?

 

You're going to have to convince big battery AND the OEMs.
Right now people are willingly buying cars without spare tyres.....to save weight, of course (wink,wink!)
Some otherwise intelligent people are not even settling for wimpy little doughnuts.

Batteries are much the same.
Oh - you HAVE to have one but they're often as not very GOOD ones, even some of the AGM (absorbent glass matt) batteries are failing earlier and earlier - and the OEMs are only incentivized to have them work properly during the warranty period.
Customers are self installing more and more alarm systems, amps and subs, cameras, refrigerators and heaters, and on and on and on.
Me?
I have and keep a jump pack and I make sure that the one in my CFO's car is charged and ready to go.
It's cheap insurance.
Even my budget $50 unit has been solidly reliable over the last 5 years.
I keep a more premium ($100) jump pack in my CFOs car.
If this were a problem that OEMs were incentivized to solve then cars could be equipped with an onboard jump pack at scale for $25-50 or so per unit.

Lots cheaper than switching to a 48VDC electrical system.

 

I would rather that as an option instead of the $90 for 3 USB-c cables that is one Camry option some regions force on people.

 

You forgot the pouch of car care products that also come with some SET vehicles.

 

My last GMC came with a full size spare.......as do Ford Lightnings and Cybertrucks....IIRC.

 

I was thinking of SET. since I am close to the NC border, I started looking down there until I saw all of the added cr*p!. I ended up with a Camry XLE with just the 2 options I wanted. Premium Plus Package & the all weather floor mats. Not from SET though.