Greetings everyone! We recently picked up a 2026 Prius PHEV and I wish to add a 12V battery tender harness under the hood. I have added these to other cars and placed the connector so that it pokes out at the lower windshield area for easy access. Looking under the hood of the Prius, Toyota does not make it easy to attach a ring terminal to the remote positive battery point inside the fuse box. It looks like Toyota designed this for alligator clips and not a ring terminal connector. I poked around and discovered that the positive metal piece extends all the way to a nut and bolt. I tested whether or not there is power going to this nut by using a battery tester and it powered up! I believe it is safe to connect the ring terminal of the battery tender harness to this nut. What do you think?
It worked! FYI, the Toyota 12V battery in my car is a GS Yuasa 345LN1-MF. Contrary to some info on the web, this is not an AGM battery as it is a maintenance-free (MF) lead-acid battery.
Is there a reason to do it up front instead of through the back hatch? I installed mine directly to the battery and ran the wire under the battery cover. When in regular use*, I run it out the bottom of the hatch opening and close the hatch on it leaving a little pigtail out to connect to. When not in use, I hide the short cord in the corner of the cargo area next to the battery cover. I'm having a hard time understanding how a cord coming out of the windshield area is a nicer and easier install. It seems like it would be ugly and flapping in the wind while driving, or else you'd have to open the hood every time you wanted to use it. By placing it in the rear hatch, you can leave it there even while driving and it's no issue. *in the winter, I might plug it in more often and just leave the connector dangling out between charging(it's weatherproof)
Me too. Also there's some windshield defroster wires in that area. I don't think it would be a problem but the manual says be careful about touching that are when it's running.
