Major Price Increase on Toyota Hybrid Battery Packs?

Ouch!!!!!!!!

 

Noticed that a couple of weeks ago when searching for the best price within areas of the NE, then realized it was regional or a dealer group.

After checking locally (by zip code), the pricing is still within range, or under 2k for the most part.

 

Then it JUST changed, as it was $1950 yesterday. Palo Alto had one for $1755.

 

I warned in December and January that this would happen. Yes supply issues. This is one of the reasons why I went from barely having enough stock to last the month (finally!) to being completely sold out for 5 months with pre-orders. Fleets and garages buying up every pack they could.

Almost all the raw materials come from China and Mongolia to build these packs, yes even the Toyota ones. When you shut down an entire supply chain, it doesn't start back up immediately. And when it did start back up, the US shut down. Shipping companies are bankrupting, factories are closed, workers have left to go "back home" and didn't come back so now you have more unskilled labour mining and producing, making everything slower and more expensive.

I hope this is temporary, and I would expect it to ease up by the end of this year. But you know it is really easy to lower the price of something. Really hard to raise the price. So if you raise the price across the board, it doesn't just come down. My guess is they are also paying 25% import tax on the batteries now thanks to the Orange Cheeto and have been eating the cost just like me. And if those sanctions aren't going away anytime soon, Toyota doesn't want to keep subsidizing.

 

I believe that MSRP of $3,300, is the price and core charge both.

 

I wonder if refurb sellers will raise prices.

 

Luckily there hasn't been a change to their supply and they face no import taxation. If they do it would be for money grabbing.

 

Also to consider... There's a record number of older Prius suffering from Covid... And rather than charging and balancing after several rounds of reconditioning customer's battery packs, the crooks would rather throw away perfectly good packs and make a much bigger profit off selling brand new.

Catch is, too many profiteers at the same time when the supply line is still trying to recover from pandemic. In other words greedy people are making the supply of new packs scarce for illegitimate reasons.

In short, the chickens have come home to roost. All of this could of been avoided had Toyota included a plugin hybrid battery maintenance system with each vehicle.

 

Yes there's going to be a rash of hybrid battery deaths when the 15 year old Prius is parked for 4 months and then asked to come back to work. That battery is toast.

 

It's not toast if you charge and balance and recondition every 18 months... I'm even working on 20 year-old Gen1 Prius battery packs that have surprisingly great numbers. The problem doesn't have anything to do with hybrid batteries getting too old. The real problem here is the racket that makes everyone who has a chance to make money selling new packs being dishonest with customers about the lifespan of their existing pack.

 

I'm not aware of any Prius that came from the factory with grid charging capabilities to balance a pack routinely. If you do it as a specialist, great. Like you said, if you baby the modules properly you won't lose capacity and your balance will remain close enough for the Prius (really loose tolerance). But if you don't, there are irreversible changes in the chemistry and especially internal terminals that manifest as series resistance and lower capacity. And no amount of balancing after the damage is done will prevent that.

I never turn anyone away from using a grid charger after a couple years of age. But just like how my vintage electronics still work great because I take good care of them and not because they just sit there, a Prius pack will last essentially forever if taken really good care of. I'd wager the majority of Prius owners don't even give it a thought until 12 years later when their pack fails and they Google. And it's too late at that point. Preventative maintenance is awesome if done preventatively.

 

Yeah... Planned obsolescence was more important to Toyota than their durability reputation with their pickup trucks... Even when one of 168 cells goes bad, that doesn't mean that pack is toast. It just needs a new module and other modules that may fail next need to be replaced.

Imagine if governments of the world made it so keeping your existing Prius on the road was always the least expensive option. Toyota could of been very successful selling pack swaps and grid charging options... Heck if the profitability was high enough we'd be converting Gen2 Prius to all electric. Of course as too off is the case these days the more you maximize consumer waste production the more you maximize profitability. Very disappointing as always...

 

THAT IS A MISPRINT!!!

I just called 3 Toyota dealer and YES!!! = That MSRP of $3,300, is the price of the hybrid battery and core charge both.

3 different Toyota Dealers told me $1950 for the Hybrid Battery+ $1350 for core charge= $3,300

 

Dealer prices are very variable. The one by me confirmed via phone the price is now $3k plus core for a pack over the counter. Not matching any numbers here. He himself said "whoa, what happened".

 

That's not reflective of most dealer prices. Maita Toyota and Roseville Toyota are, and always have been, a ripoff in how they do business... And because they're in Sacramento area, which is one the biggest markets in the world for Prius they could care less that they scam everyone. I went thru a classic bait and switch with Roseville where they get you to show up for a super low price mint condition Prius and then say "it was just sold" and then try to sell you the most beat up garbage Prius on the lot for way too high a price. Drove by a few days later and that same bait car they claimed was sold was still sitting in the same spot. And don't make the mistake of giving them a phone number or email... They'll contact you almost every day for years if you don't put a stop to it.