Finest, greenest, & safest taxicab in the world. The story of cab 2545

Must be the American Exceptionalism preserving our batteries.

 

And my comments above indicate that that is exactly the same conditions as ours, except your lights are further apart - usually a block apart, whereas sometimes ours are only 30 - 200 yards apart. But crawling in 2 mph traffic for 10 hours will cycle the battery over a much wider range, and it's probably that which is killing them earlier.

Anyway, the Prii here seem to have issues that are not being experienced in the US. Something is different somewhere.

 

do any automakers market certain vehicles to taxi drivers/companies? i know there used to be a london cab and over here yellow cab.

 

The local brand was Checker.

NYC had a Taxi of Tomorrow program Taxi of Tomorrow Home that selected a Nissan van for its all around competency and accessibility but a judge has put that on hold. I don't know if the vehicle was in any way of enhanced durability though.
I know of no purpose-built taxi models currently offered in the US.

 

In Germany there's a special Mercedes E class cab. We have the London cab which is obligatory in London and a few other cities, but it is optional elsewhere. As it's totally dreadful to drive and be driven in, they're few and far between. There are better purpose built offerings from other companies or a normal car is more popular.

The London taxi is a hit with the tourists but it's dreadful to drive. Drove one for a few years and never, ever want to drive one again. Had one blow up on me when it was only a few months old and burnt my legs badly. Never forgave it. Thankfully legs healed well. My opinion is that they're all that was and is wrong with British car manufacturing. They're a throw back to the early 1970s. Quality control was lacking. Other than turning on a sixpence, there is nothing good about it.

 

it just seems like a car needs to be well built in certain areas to be a cab. but perhaps the extra expense up front, defeats the lower maintenance cost.

 

Doesn't the car do this automatically itself? I'm sure I've had times where it does some jiggery pokery with he battery similar to how you describe - right down to 2 bars for a long time, then slowly slowly charging upto 7/8 for a long time.

 

i just today had my batt replaced . i think your getting some of the battery's pre-death warning signs . if you sense a difference in how it holds on to your regular driving like the engine kicking in to soon on lower speeds and a small jerk between the engine swapping if you try ev when your batt is charged adequately for it to do so butt the screen tells you that EV ISN'T AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW hahahaaa your Time isÁ coming.
OH and another thing i think driving the car on a near dead or dead batt until it gets replaced is no good for the tranny the power converter and everything else associated to it . and i am saying this because the dealer had no batteries to replace mine when the problem arose and i was running the car for a good 2-3 weeks before today ,,,and i noticed a sound between power supply changes when increasing speed on the part that the tranny changed from electric supply to gas engine supply a krrrrrrr like that of a old abused clutch fly wheel if i am naming the part correctly ..you know that grinding noise coffee makers make ?! after the install of the batt it stopped making the sound .
this new cabdriver that started this thread says they recommended some sort of a difib as maintenance for the battpack i never heard such practice before and it sounds like some sort of a run around to me but i hope i am mistaken ! this practice sounds like opening a can of worms . never ever practiced on previous hybrids . and now that the battpack problem surfaces there is a scramble about the problem that concedes to the problem.
defeat the purpose i chose to go green .

 

Oh dear. My car is definitely stuttering, hesitating or jerking slightly when the engine wants to fire up at every speed other than real gentle, when transitioning from ev to engine. It's almost like a misfire for just one cyclinder if that makes sense. It never been like that until the last few months and I think it might be getting slowly worse. Not even at 80,000 yet. Do I keep the car and risk a big bill or do I get rid at a loss? Hmmm.

Oh and to my Portuguese friend who says the Euro cars have an extended warranty. Not in the UK I'm afraid. 60,000 miles or 5 years is the limit unless I want to pay hundreds of £'s for an extended warranty. I might do, rather than pay £2,500 for a new battery.

Foolish me thinking the gen3 would be better than the gen2. The reduced warranty should have given the game away, but I never believed Toyota would lower themselves like that. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice.....

 

GC I have a printed notice that I ran off from My Toyota online "The Hybrid Service Progamme". They now do a "hybrid health check" that if your car passes your battery is guaranteed for a further year with a millage limitation for that year for up to 10 years. I cannot post it here because it states on the bottom it is copyrighted. But I will PM you with the details.

John (Britprius)

 

You're welcome to. And if it doesn't pass? Is that then logged on Toyota UK and leave you with an unsellable car?

 

No idea. This states it can be done even after the car is out of guarantee and has not been serviced by Toyota, but I can see where your coming from.

John (Britpius)

 

Already on My Toyota and have been for a while. It shows I have an outstanding recall that should have been done. I can't see any word of this battery extension thing though either.

 

I have read that this deep discharge-rapid recharge cycle can be done to NIMH batteries and I believe that the effect is that the heavy charge rate tends to "melt out" the accumulated metal spikes leading to the anode or cathode, which gives the battery a renewed lease on life. (I have done this, but only with tiny AA sized NIMH batteries). The effect is not permanent, however, as in a normal use cycle the metal will slowly re-deposit and ultimately kind of short out the cell.
The alternative approach is to replace just the defective cells in the Prius battery pack to return it to "balance", and I think that is a viable approach if you are willing to fool directly with the 200 volt battery.
Hope this helps.

 

How much did it cost?
I wonder if one can do it self?

 

ALLS AS WELL tinkering with the cells would be no problem as long nice person toyota makes cells of the same built but with a lesser output battery ... but not of the same pack in the cell have it with better conduction and make it a sort of a pass-through so that when the rest of the cells start running through it easily so not to miss balancing on it's own

 

there lays the problem in changing cells i believe. i don't think brand new cells of the same output would help as much .