planning for new prius

If it lives in an air conditioned garage and you use its air conditioner when out and about, heat shouldn't be a killing factor, heat soak--sitting in hot air does effect the traction battery, but if you keep it cool, cool.

 

welcome! agree with above. but if you plan to keep it longer than 8 years, you may have to deal with the cost of a new battery at some point. might be worth asking how much, installed. gen4 is a whole new battery.

 

the first 120,000 miles of maintenance are just oil, filters and etc., repairs not covered by warranty are often easily done by any qualified mechanic. some things are best left to the dealer.
the battery either works, or it doesn't. there are no toyota authorized repairs to it. 40-50 degrees c = 100-120f or so, that's pretty warm. we do have something similar in the southwest without major problems. again, parking in the sun all day seems to be the worst thing for it.
the battery has been known to last 2-300,000 miles under the right conditions.

 

Probably not - many PRIUS batteries are still going after much more than 8 years. One thing I'd consider doing is ensuring that there is good airflow around the front of the back seat cushion - there are 2 vents which circulate air around the battery. Also, I'd keep the air-conditioner on "all of car" rather than "driver priority" to cool the entire car rather than just the driver. The car actually works more economically in summer than winter.

Before I bought it, I'd take it for a test-drive to ensure that the air-conditioner is strong enough in your heat - thought I imagine your climate is "cooler" now than mid-summer. We haven't had a summer yet here since I bought mine. To cool the car quickly, though, I change it from driver priority and send air to both face and feet (and there are feet outlets in the back seat, not face-level) so it gets maximum air-flow from vents. I also take it from ECO mode for both the A/C and the drive mode.

Window tint, putting a sunshade inside front and back windows when parked will help keep the car cooler. And I suspect WHITE paint will be cooler.

 

40-50 C is 104-122 Fahrenheit just in case anyone else wondered. I know battery powered and hybrid cars in Phoenix seem to complain about issues more than anywhere with their hot desert Sunny daily climate. I think they run around 110F or 44C daily during the summer months. I bought mine and I'm in florida but keep my car in my garage to keep the sun off of it and knew I would need to do this to keep the batteries cooler and help keep them lasting long.

 

The other thing to keep in mind - TOYOTA wouldn't have released it if they hadn't tested it. I'd be surprised if PRIUS was less suited than the diverse range of cars sold in Dubai.

 

Actually, Bob in the UK has managed to get his 11 year old Prius to 435,000 miles last year, on the original battery AND with just routine servicing too.
Source: Bob Old and his 435,000-mile hybrid - Toyota

 

Apparently, over the years there have been reports of Toyota testing various models including the Prius in Death Valley in the USA, which would be as hot as the UAE in the summer.

I understand the concern, but one would hope that if Toyota have decided to sell a Prius for the first time in the Dubai, they would have done enough of their own tests to feel confident that the car is suitable for use in that particular market.

 

You can rest assured that Toyota did sufficient stress testing of Prius to simulate Mideast life, and get data for failure rates of components, esp the HV Battery. Failure rates will help them determine warranty duration. And Toyota has likely determined 8years/unlimited miles to be the service life of the car/parts in that region of the world. I wonder why there is no mileage limit? Maybe a UAE government demand? Wonder what the average mileage driven per year is out there?

Now if only Samsung had done some stress testing of the Note 7, prior to product launch.

 

TOYOTA is inconsistent around the world - here in Australia, they have 6 month/10,000km services mandated - lowest in the entire world, and worst of their fleet of cars. It's about greedy dealer$ putting the pre$$ure on them to have them $erviced more often. No wonder they're not selling many here.

At one stage they were making CAMRY here for export as well as local market - we thought it odd that ours only had 3 yr warranty whereas the export models in many markets got 5 yrs. And less frequent service requirements.