30's couple buying Prius-battery a legit concern?

And my apologies, too, if my response seemed prickly. Although most people on the blogs are really kind and informative, there are always a few snarky troll types, causing me to feel like I better dot every i and cross every t and end up with a posting that seems so lawyer-approved that no one would find it interesting, and feel why even bother?

Back to batteries: Yes I was thinking of the gauge, and there is more charge "below" the gauge than "above." It's interesting that the language has changed: People used to speak of a "D-Cell," not a size D battery, because a battery was a grouping of cells. I've read that it can be good for a cell to be brought to zero charge occasionally, but it's terrible for a cell to be forced below zero or above full. (I've heard of home photovoltaic system storage batteries that are supposed to have all of the cells disconnected twice a year and each cell fully discharged, in order to extend the lifespan.) But a battery (collection of cells in series) fully drained or highly charged will likely damage one or more of its cells by forcing it below zero or above full, because the capacity of each cell varies, especially over time.

So, the question is, does the Prius battery only utilize the 40% to 80% to avoid individual cell damage, or are there other wear concerns? If the 40-80 is ONLY to avoid cell damage (quite likely?), and heating isn't anything of a concern (I doubt that), then a highway driven car's battery, with it's charge sitting around 64% (60-70) most of the time wouldn't last longer than a suburban / hilly terrain driven car that more utilizes the full 40-80.

Then again, if there's any "memory effect," it seems possible the highway driven battery might have a shorter life, and so my earlier post might just be backwards after all. This suggests that's at least possible: FAQ's on nimh batteries, and nicad rechargeable batteries compared to heavy duty batteries:

"Technically, NiMH batteries do not have a "memory effect", but strictly speaking neither do NiCds. However NiMH batteries can experience voltage depletion, also called voltage depression, similar to that of NiCd batteries, but the effect is normally less noticeable. To completely eliminate the possibility of NiMH batteries suffering any voltage depletion effect manufacturers recommend an occasional, complete discharge of NiMH batteries followed by a full recharge."

 

Comments in bold below.

 

Dealers are already steady to charge more than sticker because of shortages. The sticker is a guideline, but certainly not a limit. So if you got yours for under sticker...good job!