How to check battery health on used Prime

charge it up, and see how far it goes before the engine comes on.

these things are nearly indestructible

 

If it is the Advanced model, the HUD shows the remaining miles available on EV operation. In Summer weather like now, with the air conditioner on, mine showed 29.2 miles when I started out this morning. After three years I haven't noticed a significant change. If it were winter time, it would start out at 24 or 25 miles. I would be more concerned with how many miles on the odometer.

 

def on the obd, but i'm not sure which app people are using to read it.

you should be able to find details in the range threads

 

I've heard a lot of people use the Dr. Prius app over OBD. I'm not sure what info it provides but it most likely can tap into battery health.

 

There is no app I know of that will give you clear read out of the traction battery capacity, but I can't imagine any 2020 Prime traction battery has degraded by just sitting on the lot. My feeling is that a dealer charging the PRIME on their lot is the same as what owner does at home. The charger in the PRIME will not allow full charge of the traction battery above 84% SoC (which is 100% SoC on the dash).

 

It's exceedingly unlikely that you have anything to worry about.

Here's the "simple" check. If they will turn you loose with a full charge (indicated 100% which is actually about 83%), see how far you get on the first 50% of the battery charge. It will be displayed at the top of the hybrid system indicator (HID) on the main display. It can be set to either miles or percent.

But keep in mind that how far you go is dependent much more on how you drive than on the battery capacity. To know the battery capacity, you can estimate it by looking at your miles per kWh over that 50% SOC drive and calculating how may kWh you used in using half of the 6+ kWh available in a full battery. ie, If you went 15 miles on 50% of a full charge, and the display showed you getting 5.0 m/kWh then that would be a use of 3.0 kWh. (3 kWh at 5 m/kWh comes to 15 miles.) That would mean the battery has about 6 kWh available to the driver. This is very approximate since you can go quite a ways with the display showing 50% before it drops to 49%, so it's really a guessing game.

Basically, though, don't worry about it. Unless it's been driven a ton of miles, it's under warranty.

 

Srivenkat, can you report if you found a good way to measure the battery capacity? Are you happy with the range that your new Prius gets?
I disagree with people who think that laying around for a long time does not degrade the battery. If it was kept in direct sun in hot weather, the battery will start deteriorating from just sitting around for a long time (that is why your phone starts to complain when exposed to direct sun).