Where can the OE main battery be bought for a decent price

Hold the presses! Toyota is and has been knowingly selling unsafe lithium-ion batteries for many years! In fact that's all you can get in their best selling Rav4s! Oh the humanity! Why weren't we warned! Dadgum phones are equally unsafe!

Dang. Why did Toyota sabotage a small American company by letting them install their lithium batteries without a proper bms? Toyota must have known!

Toyota should immediately hire those crafty California battery gurus as safety consultants!


I bet Mazda knows what's going on:

Seriously, this sounds like a plan for the repair your own nimh crowd. But the California battery gurus better be consulted!

By the way, Tesla is drinking the lithium-ion koolaid as well! Call in the Marines!

 

Here is a curious question. Have any of you bought a new Prius? I ask because it seems there are quite a few forum members here chasing perceived value with buying a used Prius. You could do just fine but it seems like a lot of these used Priuses have their fair share of gremlins. Many have suffered a life of neglect by previous owners.

Obviously Toyota has a serious problem with the traction battery and replacement costs that border absurd. Why the batteries do not cost $1,000-1,500 is beyond me. The time to swap out and install a new battery is around an hour by an experienced person. Yet the cost can be $4-6K in many cases. It's not as if the Prius batteries are large compared to a BEV vehicle.

 

First, you're posting in the Gen 2 forum, so it's likely you're going to read about a lot of Gen 2s. To most of us, they are the peak of durability and DIYability for this family of cars.

Now, the traction battery being a serious problem? Most Gen 2s get 12-16 years or about 250k miles before they start having hybrid battery problems. Not sure I would consider that a serious problem?
Any decent DIYer with a basic understanding of electricity, wiring and operation of hand tools can rebuild one almost as easily as swapping batteries in a flashlight. (and often, even those that think they know, but don't realize how much they actually don't know, can also rebuild them with enough Youtube guidance) Those who can't or have no desire to, are at the mercy of dealerships or 3rd party businesses just like for any other automotive repair. What if an engine fails in an ice? maybe a transmission? Both cost more than a hybrid battery.
I've had a BUNCH of Gen 2s. The most I ever paid was 2500 for my first one. After getting hooked, one for 1200. After that a dozen or so, never more than 1k. NONE needing any bodywork or interior repairs, all just needed battery and/or brake actuator repair. Easy flips or keepers depending on the day.

 

I'm pretty confident my $900 Gen 2 pack built with 2025 CX50 modules will still be going strong a decade after the last Project Lithium battery is in a landfill somewhere. 99% sure it will still be rolling for years longer than any of these Project Sodium batteries from the same company.

 

I got fed up with the panasonic prismatic garbage and put in a cylindrical nihm kit. It's been in there nearly 2.5 years(retired, light usage) and the balance is still <50mv. Yabo was the brand on alibaba. I built a 72 cell headway Lipo pack but the toyota battery profile FW can't follow the Lipo curve, plus low temp charging issues etc made it unreliable. Put in the Yabo or equiv and get on with life....

 

You think an Alibaba cylindrical kit is better than the OEM prismatic modules?
Time for you to start buying the Alibaba spark plugs and inverter cooling water pumps also.........

wow....................

 

FYI. The cylindrical cells last 4 to 5 years. New OEM prismatic modules will last 10 to 15 years.