How many charges is the Prius Plug In good for?

Note the Toyota warranty, like the Nissan Leaf, is against manufacture defects not a warranty of capacity or number of charges you can expect. A year ago I would have said every manufacture must clearly expect most batteries to last 8 years/100K miles or they would not risk having that in a warranty. Recent events in AZ make me wonder if they really are just hoping and the lack of capacity/range claims in the warranty gives them their out - I have no doubt the battery will work in 8 years.. the question would be how much range it provides.

Then again Toyota is not Nissan, so hopefully they did a better job on the engineering to ensure a good lifetime. (Though personally I worry about a battery without thermal management, the smaller size of the PiP's battery and active cooling coupled with the cabin air make that much less of a concern than for the Leaf).

 

i have read too many complaints regarding the the regular prius batteries and warranty coverage to take that answer to the bank. i prefer to charge just prior to driving most of the time and once in a while, due to unforeseen circumstances, leave it fully charged for more than a few hours or a day such as fully charging it before sandy came to town. the salesman who sold you the car will be happy to tell you about the warranty. now trot on down to service and tell them you don't think the battery is working properly and see what they have to say.

 

what's the difference between a "regular" and "irregular" pip battery?

 

i don't know what you're talking about.

 

I take "regular" to mean the factory installed traction battery, versus the add-on batteries like Jiim335 has installed to extend the EV range.

 

i didn't realize there were problems with them or their warranty coverage… (which, btw, is 15 years/150k miles in CARB states)

 

it's not the amount of miles or time they are covered. the problem is, if you don't get a dtc, they have no way ofknowing if the battery is bad or not. if you're mpg's go down, there is nothing they can do for you. the battery is only warranted for manufacturing defects. if your pip goes 10 miles on a charge now, and 5 miles a few years from now, it's not covered under the warranty.

 

do we know that for a fact? any battery has a capacity measured in Ah. Apple, for example, warrants their batteries for 50% of the original rated capacity. do you really think that if the total capacity decreases to 10% of the original, that's not considered a "failure"? does it really need to go to 0%?

 

i can't recall any posts about batteries being replaced under warranty unless a code is thrown. i suppose if it is severe enough, with a lot of perserverance, you might be able to get toyota area rep to test drive car and agree to severely diminished capacity. but that would be a judgement call and not black and white warranty.
i'm not saying it's an issue, my thought process goes back to the o/p's original post about charging, and subsequent post of 'nevermind, i don't care anymore, salesman told me it has an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty'.

 

I wonder if there is a code for something like "reported capacity critically low"

 

"critically low" should throw a code.

I wonder if there is a way to report how much balancing the BMS is having to do and if the same individual cell(s) are repeating.

 

Just an anecdote, but one I love to tell, so humor me: when I was 16 I bought a 6-year-old Toyota pickup that had 60,000 miles on the clock. I personally then put 175,000 miles on it over the next 14 years and really beat the heck out of it in every way possible. At 170,000 miles it got a crack in the exhaust manifold, which Toyota repaired for free--saying the problem was a "design flaw". At 230,000 miles it happened again. The truck wasn't worth $500 with a full tank, but Toyota replaced it for free again--about $700 worth of parts and work--and apologized about the inconvenience! Tremendous. I gave the truck to a friend when I moved and had too many vehicles, but kind of wished I'd kept it just to see how far it would go...

 

you could have made one of those million mile toyota commercials.

 

No. It is 10 years or 150K miles (which ever comes first) in CARB states.

Since it is the exact same battery in every state, the nominal expected life has to be beyond 150K miles.

Mike

 

from Toyota Prius Plug-in Warranty Coverages

Hybrid-related components including the HV battery, battery control module, hybrid control module and inverter with converter, are covered for 8 years/100,000 miles. In states that have adopted the California Emission Control Warranty, coverage is 15 years/150,000 miles for performance and defect, and the hybrid battery is covered for 10 years/150,000 miles.​

Edit: oh i see now, the battery is separate at the end there.

 

what's the difference between the hv battery in the first sentance and the hybrid battery in the last?

 

The battery in the first sentence is in the states that don't follow CARB. The second battery is in cars in California and Carb states.. (Mass is carb state).

 

interesting, thanks. how do you read 'for performance and defect'? is that for everything but the battery?

 

BTW, CARB = California Air Resources Board, but as noted, other states subscribe to those standards.