What would happen to Prius with dead battery pack?

[etyler88]

If someone keeps and drives a Prius to the bitter end how would the battery pack die?

Quickly but Prius lives on as, approximately, a 35 mpg ICE car.

Slowly and MPG slowly deteriorates.

Or when battery pack goes car won't work or MPG becomes ghastly SUV/Hummer like.

Anybody know?

[galaxee]

no battery pack, no go.

it's hybrid synergydrive- it needs both.

[KTPhil]

If the battery deteriorates slowly, you will run the ICE more and mpg will suffer. However, a dead HV battery disables the car. The planetary drive needs motor/gen action to work, and a dead HV battery would probably prevent this.

[clintd555]

This is an advantage the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid has over the Prius. The Hybrid Civic can rely on it's ICE without electrical motor assistance.

[etyler88]

So what do you think would be the worst MPG before the battery pack becomes completely unusable?

[gschoen]

While the Honda Hybrids technically can operate without their battery pack, if you consider the Civic's 0-60 time WITH it's electric assist is already 2 seconds more than Prius, without it the car would perform horribly. Maybe just useful enough to drivve to a service station with your hazard lights on.

The Accord hybrid has a powerful v-6 engine so likely it would perform acceptably even without it's electric assist.

[jeromep]

Originally posted by clintd555@Feb 6 2006, 11:08 AM
This is an advantage the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid has over the Prius. The Hybrid Civic can rely on it's ICE without electrical motor assistance.

[snapback]204571[/snapback]

I wouldn't call that an advantage. Anyone who owns a hybrid knows that the battery is an integral part of the vehicle in all aspects, or else it isn't a hybrid. The logic of being able to drive a hybrid without a battery makes as much sense as driving a conventional vehicle without a functioning transmission. A vehicle stuck in 2nd gear isn't very good for much; a hybrid without a battery isn't a hybrid and isn't much of a vehicle either.

What hasn’t been pointed out is that Toyota’s battery management system protects the battery and works to prevent memory effect, which is the biggest danger to battery life. Very sophisticated sensing technologies work to prevent memory effect and to eliminate it if a memory situation starts to occur. So far, any battery issues that have occurred on Prius have been on 1st gen vehicles and on top of that there is no documented situation where an owner was fully on the hook for a battery related issue.

The tuning of the Honda engine for hybrid use doesn't lend itself well to sans-battery operation. In addition, without a functioning battery it is carrying around a lot of dead weight, in the form of a flywheel with an electric motor grafted to it and a battery pack that is not providing any contribution in this scenario.

So, following with my example of transmission failure. How much is it to go through and fix a dead transmission on an otherwise good vehicle? $1500-2000 in many instances (a lot less expensive than purchasing a new car). Estimated cost to replace a battery should it ever happen, and that is unlikely, $1500-2000. However, I cannot stress enough that the likelihood of this happening is beyond slim. You are more likely to spend money to fix an auto trans than you are to spend money replacing a battery in a Prius.

So, the Honda's advantage of operating without a battery is a pretty lame excuse to support an unimpressive hybrid platform.

[KTPhil]

"So what do you think would be the worst MPG before the battery pack becomes completely unusable?"

No one knows, because so far no one has worn out a battery! This despite several cases of 200K miles.

[jeromep]

Originally posted by etyler88@Feb 6 2006, 11:25 AM
So what do you think would be the worst MPG before the battery pack becomes completely unusable?

[snapback]204584[/snapback]

I don't think you can get an accurate answer to that question. Considering that the ECUs are continually evaluating battery condition and are making adjustents to it on the fly, without you knowing what it is doing behind the scenes, there is no real MPG issue, so much as there is an issue of the battery either working properly or not working at all.

If the HV battery were to fail or provide insufficient electrical power beyond a point which is acceptible by the onboard control systems, the vehicle would probably just shut down and provide a number of error lights indicating that professional diagnosis is in order.

[Frank Hudon]

as both the HCH and the Prius require the HV battery to start the ICE a failed battery in either will prevent the ICE from starting. Dealer time.