Battery Pack Life Expectancy

Is that a typo? Isn't light ~186,000 mps?

 

You may be right. I just looked up the speed of light, and it is actually 186,282.4 miles/second. Oops. My Prius was just getting going at that point.

 

My experience says that time is more important than miles. The gen1 warranty was 10 years or 100,000 miles. Beginning with 2004 models it became 8 years or 100,000 miles. My 2001 that arrived in March 2001 required a HV battery replacement in January 2009 at 197,000 miles. My sister-in-law's 2001 required a replacement in September 2009 at 97,000 miles. I was using my car as a courier vehicle driving about 1,000 miles a week. She was driving a less than ordinary number of miles.

My Prius finally died about three years ago at 230,000 miles with a transaxle, or MG problem. The engine starts and runs for about 20 seconds and then starts bucking and jerking, like a manual transmission car stopping without pushing in the clutch, and then stalls.


Bob Edwards
859-509-3872

 

Not scientific or perhaps even valid but my dealer (a medium sized Toyota dealer) says that they've never had to replace a battery pack in any model of Prius since they've been selling them. I'd guess that's many hundreds of cars.

 

I bought an 02 prius that had 291000 miles on it and the guy I bought it from swears that it was original..Sorry to say the pack did not last too long after that..

 

The April 2014 issue of Consumer Reports ( the annual automotive issue ) had the following statement on page 91. "For the first time we're getting a sense of the lifespan of a Prius battery. Our latest survey sees 12- and 11-year-old Prius batteries ( 2002s and 2003s ) with a replacement rate of 5 and 4 percent respectively. Overall, the Toyota Prius remains among the most reliable of all cars." In a separate part of the same article, they slam the 2009 Civic Hybrids for battery failure rates of 30 percent. They add: "The equivalent for the Toyota Prius? A fraction of 1 percent." Confirms what we already knew!! Drive on!

 

Roy from Canada trying to help. I have the chinese techstream. You can see all the battery voltages updated every 10 seconds as you drive, also the battery current and state of charge are on the same screen. You can record the data as you drive and review it later or keep it as a reference. Very useful device to monitor battery health.

 

I have a 2005 Prius with 276,000 miles on the original HV battery. I still get near 50 mpg. My wife has a 2006 Prius with 170,000 miles and alas, she had to have her HV battery replaced at about 97,000 miles but the dealer replaced it without charge. She gets about 46 mpg which may be due to her driving habits. I have had a bunch of cars ranging from a '64 Corvair to a Mercedes 300E and have found that the Prii are among the most reliable!

 

New here and shopping for a Prius, in our price range we have found two 2009's with aprox 98,000 miles. What is the warranty on the 2009? Is it transferable? We have friends who love their Prius but as first timers to the hybrid market we have the typical battery paranoia.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
PS, hope I posted to the right form, I just googled Prius battery life expectancy and this popped us, joined the form because I figure once we buy I will have more questions.

 

Hey Welcome aboard Neighbor Scott

Well, my suggestion is to invite me when you find a candidate and I will bring my TIS mini-VCI reader to read the current health of the HV battery. No Charge, just being a good neighbor

As far as transfer of warranty, I would contact Toyota as I do not think seller will really know. Life expectancy will depend on how the car was used. On freeways (middle ground, not optimal as battery needs to be exercised), local stop and goes (best). sitting in the drive way never started for long periods of time ( worse condition )

BTW, we are Gen1, I think you want Gen 2 or 3.

 

You have the advantage of being self-aware of your "battery paranoia".

One of the biggest things for first-timers to the hybrid market to learn is that the battery doesn't belong any higher on your list of possible trouble areas than most of the other things that wear out or break on cars. I had my first used Prius for eight years (from its seventh to its fifteenth year) and never touched the HV battery. Couple wheel bearings, some light bulbs, brake pads never wore out but calipers got sticky, engine developed some valve train noise around 200,000 miles and was starting to read noticeably lower on compression around 230,000. Wore out a driver's door hinge and auto lock motor.

Typical old car stuff. It's not that the battery never fails ... in Consumer Reports data published a couple years ago, the incidence seems to reach about 4 percent by car age 11, 5 percent by age 12. You could be one of the few percent of people it happens to. If you are, then just as you would with any other part going out, you look at the cost and how much you're still enjoying the car, and either drop a new one in and keep it, or move up to something else.

-Chap

 

I have my 2010 Prius for a little over 6 years and have done about 147000 miles on it with the original battery and its running great. No loss of mileage. I just had it inspected last weekend at Toyota as I was in for a recall and it still checks out OK.

 

My 06 lasted 260k before battery failed. Battery seemed to be in bad health for some years though, as I own two 2nd gen's and this one would always discharge(purple) going up certain hills at freeway speeds while the other one would be in the blue.