More lead required for Prius battery than a Hummer battery?

[oceanrhythms]

I was a birthday party yesterday and everybody at the party had asked if I sold my gas hog (2006 Nissan Exterra Off Road). They then started in on a discussion about Prius' and replacement cost of the battery. Has anybody needed to replace their batteries.......... how much does it REALLY cost? The people at the party were saying it cost $3,000 (US) to replace the batteries. True?

Also, while on the Prius bashing bandwagon ............ they went on to say how they read an article in Time magazine that it takes much more lead to produce a Prius battery than a Hummer battery. I found this shocking! If it's true, I don't feel as good about buying a Prius in regards to environmental concerns. Has anybody else heard if this fact is true?

I FINALLY got a deposit from a buyer to buy my gas hog! Time to celebrate! After I sell the thing next week, I will be doing some serious shopping for a Prius. Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with a particular dealer in the Bay Area they would like to share? Do you know what the current wait time is for a Prius?

Thanks!
John

[jyl]

Try searching here, these have been discussed.

[Testm0nkey]

There's a sticky thread here called "Prius Myths and Rebuttals" or something similar. I don't know if it discusses lead but it does discuss the nickel in the batteries and the battery replacement/high cost myth.

[donee]

Hi Oceanrythms,

The basher is aparently confused. The Prius traction battery uses Nickel, not lead. In 10 years, or 150 K miles, the Hummer will use 3 of these which have much lead by weight as the nickel in a single Prius traction battery. And as Nickel is non-toxic, its not a hazard like discarded lead from traditional starter batteries.

The basher apparently read this rebuttal to some online bashing that has gone on, and was so convinced the original bash was true for whatever reason, could not read the rebuttal correctly.

The original bash was done by a London Tabloid magazine, which has retracted the article and appologized. But the bash has been repeated by people like Rush Limbauh, and George Will, who got it from a connecticut college newspaper article written by a kid hacked together some stuff on the internet to bash the Prius in a half an hour. It turns out this kid is a member of a muscle car 60 + 70s Cougar chat room / fan club and has such a car. The London article was with respect to the 1970's and earlier enviormental practices of a Nickel Mine in Sudbuy Ontario being the fault of Prius batteries. This mine in recent decades has won awards for the cleanup they are doing. This is where allot of Nickel comes from, of which less than 1 percent of their yearly production goes for Prius batteries. And the rest for things like chrome-looking trim on Hummers, flatware for your diner table, and turbine blades for aircraft, let alone stainless steel kitchen applianes and hardware.

The 150K mile designed (and waranted in the CA Emissions states) battery itself for generation II Prius can be had for $2400 from on-line toyota new parts sellers, and is commonly marked up to $3000 at dealers. The generation I Prius battery is signifcantly larger , less volume produced and much more expensive.

If you work out the cost it comes to 1.6 cents per mile for the Prius traction battery, whereas the extra gas used in a 25 mpg equivalent to the Prius car is 7.7 cents per mile (25 versus 48 mpg, 4 $/ga). Over a 150K mile battery life the battery is cheaper by $9100 than the gas.

[bac]

How much does it cost to replace your internal combustion engine? That's the same logic used when asking about replacing the battery.

The Prius battery is warranteed for 8 years or 100,000 miles, and 10 years or 150,000 miles in CA. How about your ICE?

... Brad

[F8L]

Originally Posted by bac

How much does it cost to replace your internal combustion engine? That's the same logic used when asking about replacing the battery.

The Prius battery is warranteed for 8 years or 100,000 miles, and 10 years or 150,000 miles in CA. How about your ICE?

... Brad

I've seen more than a few people replace their LS1 engines at dealership prices of $6,000+. Obviously they could have had it done cheaper but since we are using dealership replacement pricing..... Automatic transmission (4L60E)replacement = $3000+

[JimN]

Originally Posted by oceanrhythms

I was a birthday party yesterday and everybody at the party had asked if I sold my gas hog (2006 Nissan Exterra Off Road). They then started in on a discussion about Prius' and replacement cost of the battery. Has anybody needed to replace their batteries.......... how much does it REALLY cost? The people at the party were saying it cost $3,000 (US) to replace the batteries. True?

Also, while on the Prius bashing bandwagon ............ they went on to say how they read an article in Time magazine that it takes much more lead to produce a Prius battery than a Hummer battery. I found this shocking! If it's true, I don't feel as good about buying a Prius in regards to environmental concerns. Has anybody else heard if this fact is true?

I FINALLY got a deposit from a buyer to buy my gas hog! Time to celebrate! After I sell the thing next week, I will be doing some serious shopping for a Prius. Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with a particular dealer in the Bay Area they would like to share? Do you know what the current wait time is for a Prius?

Thanks!
John

My reply is, "My battery is warranted for 150,000 miles. Taxis have twice that without battery failure. IF it fails out of warranty it'll cost me $3000. How much will your tansmission or engine cost WHEN it fails?"

[SuperDave]

In my experience The "Basher" is most always confused.

[onlynark]

Originally Posted by oceanrhythms

I was a birthday party yesterday and everybody at the party had asked if I sold my gas hog (2006 Nissan Exterra Off Road). They then started in on a discussion about Prius' and replacement cost of the battery. Has anybody needed to replace their batteries.......... how much does it REALLY cost? The people at the party were saying it cost $3,000 (US) to replace the batteries. True?

Also, while on the Prius bashing bandwagon ............ they went on to say how they read an article in Time magazine that it takes much more lead to produce a Prius battery than a Hummer battery. I found this shocking! If it's true, I don't feel as good about buying a Prius in regards to environmental concerns. Has anybody else heard if this fact is true?

I FINALLY got a deposit from a buyer to buy my gas hog! Time to celebrate! After I sell the thing next week, I will be doing some serious shopping for a Prius. Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with a particular dealer in the Bay Area they would like to share? Do you know what the current wait time is for a Prius?

Thanks!
John

Prius Myths and their Rebuttals

toyota of walnut creek is great.

[bbald123]

And even if it were true that the Prius used more lead than the Hummer, what matter? Approximately 90 percent of the lead in car batteries is recycled. So, there would be almost no impact.