Batteries

[tochatihu]

2001-2003 had batteries of substantially different design. They went through an early life special service campaign to re-seal the cells to prevent electrolyte leakage.

Even so the failure rate of that design has been about 10% so far. Could be higher, our guesses are based on public postings. It is fair to presume that this rate will continue to climb, at least slowly.

Since 2004 the new battery design has been much more reliable. Even though the 2004+ fleet is much larger, we are simply not hearing of many HV battery failures.

I guess there are two origins for the battery fail 'myth'. One dates from about 2000 and is basically 'oh that can't possibly work' - unsupported by any data. Second is a (more or less accurate) assessment of the 2001-2003 design, but assuming that the same will apply to the new design. Unsupported by data.