Has anyone had to get a new battery? The dealership in Dallas couldn't give me a straight answer on costs for maintenance or replacement costs for the battery. :?
I have not heard of anyone having any problems with the battery from folks on this or other Prius chat lines. The battery is warranted by Toyota for 8 years/100,000 miles. I think Toyota did testing to 140,000 miles with no problems. It is also my understanding that there are components within the battery and it is possible, if necessary, to replace individual components if they "go bad" and not have to replace the entire unit. Who knows what the cost might be 8 years from now? With more hybrids coming, I'm sure the cost wil come down. I'm not worried about it.
This is simply according to the dealer I talked with, so don't quote this as scripture - but he said that it's rated for 140k, 150k in California, and if anything, you'll have to only replace some of the cells if they 'go bad'. Worst case scenario though, he said the whole battery pack runs $3,000. He also told me to see it as a regular car's transmission - same life expectancy and cost approximately. Again, just what I've heard, not hard facts in the least. -m.
From what the Service Manager told me, freshening up the battery pack will be handled on an individual cell basis, with an anticipated cost of somewhere around $750 to $1,500, assuming roughly today's pricing. Overall, it sounded reasonable from a maintenance cost perspective. Still, 7+ years from now, this guesstimate and a quarter will get you a...
I think the price will depend on more than just Toyota's cost. The long term sales picture may be effected if Toyota can't offer a reasonably priced replacement battery. Wait. What am I talking about. Americans don't keep cars for eight years. :wink:
At the pace I'm going at now, I'll have 288,000 miles in eight years. But I'm expecting the pace will pick up this fall.
LOL, guys... I just sold a '97 Taurus. The same day, its new owner reported that he got to photograph the odometer as it turned 30,000 miles. my future Prius won't be there to save me hundreds of dollars a year on gas, though it might be wonderful to have during a future "gas crisis"....
In the 04 maintenance manual, there's some info on the new battery design that uses square modules rather than the round ones that were in the classic. There's an interesting graph there showing internal battery resistance and how it grows over time. Off the top of my head, the 03 battery began deteriorating slightly after 200,000km. The 04 resistance was shown at least half that of the 03, and even after 200,000km, the internal resistance only increased very slightly. Based on that, I'm inclined to believe that the battery will last the usable life of the car. Dave
