My Experience- New Toyota HV Battery Pricing, Installation, Options

Long time lurker, first time poster. This site has been invaluable over the years for my gen2 and gen3 research and I thought I would provide my experience replacing the hybrid battery on my early Gen2 ~120k miles. Never had an issue with the Prius since I have owned it (5 years).

This is based on the premise that you are going to change the battery yourself. But, might apply if the dealer gives you a quote for parts and labor and the price they give you for the battery is substantially more than $1950. At least, here in the mid-Atlantic.

Battery Pricing
To price out a new Toyota HV battery (NO LABOR), I called about 15 Toyota dealers- all local, except one which I found online and had the lowest price within driving distance (2.5hrs each way). Prices ranged from 1699 to over 3000. Most were at 1950. While a local dealer wouldn’t match the 1699, they did do 1775 plus sales tax. I did not pay any shipping fees and it was delivered by 9am the next day to the dealer and I picked it up there. I was charged a 1350 core charge which was refunded by the dealer when I returned the core.

Using Olathe, which many do on this site, as a price check is fruitless unless you are close- they don’t ship. And, if they did ship, both ways would certainly negate any savings. When pricing- my advice is to call and search online prices of dealerships within driving distance. Prices seemed to vary within the same dealership when getting quotes over the phone and online or email. We all want everything for the cheapest possible price, but remember that dealers are a business with lots of costs and need to make money. Respect that. I was fine paying 1775 plus tax. I considered anything less than 1950 a win.

Based on my experience, I believe Toyota dealer (wholesale?) price is ~1600, consumer Retail is 1950. So you should be able to pay a price in between those numbers, but not higher than 1950 (at least in the mid-Atlantic region). Of course, there is tax and a core charge.

From what I was told, the dealers in my region (mid-Atlantic) contract with a Toyota parts distribution center. I called the distribution center to see if I could get it for less and the guy I spoke with said that they are under contract with the dealers and cannot sell directly to the public. Would have been easy for me and saved them shipping costs. Oh well. The good thing is I didn't pay for any overnight shipping and it was here the next day. Its somehow factored into the cost, obviously.

Only one dealer I spoke with tole me they would not sell to me. Another expressed how dangerous it is. And, another explained there are very specific procedures that need to be followed when re-packing the old battery (more on this later).

Replacing the HV Battery:
P0A80 code multiple times after clearing. Red triangle, etc. Erratic HV charging bars. Found one bad module (#6- which seems common) testing each modules voltage drop over a few days. No Techstream, IR, SOC, etc testing. Getting 53+mpg since.

You can find instructions on this site or youtube so I will just give my experience.

Took around 5hrs. I could probably do it in 3hrs if I had to again. Very dangerous and don’t attempt without the proper equipment, mechanical ability, and understanding of power/electricity. Separate nuts/bolts in bags and label them accordingly. Take the time to remove and clean the fan. Take pictures/video as you go for reference- Everything before removing the battery and of the wiring in the battery ECU box area before you remove and transfer the parts.

My new battery pack came in a large plastic toyota shipping box with all wiring on the sides (bus bars) in place. Serial numbers all translated to Feb 2018 build dates. IIRC, it also came with three new HV battery cables that I had to attach to module terminals (one was the HV kill switch and had two cables and was attached to each a + and – terminal on one side (connects to HV kill switch plug), the other two were attached on the other side- one was fairly short and the other long. The ‘box’ that contains the battery ECU and cable connections had to be transferred to the new battery pack. I also had to transfer the vent tubing.

The old battery (core) has to go back to Toyota (via the Dealer) and the core has to be wrapped in accordance with (Toyota?) standards for shipping a hybrid battery (hazardous materials?). I wasn’t told if I was responsible for this or the dealer would take care of it. And, the instructions in the battery box were not clear other than put a rubber mat (provided) over the cells/connectors and put the top back on the case. The instructions say you must take a training class to do it (correctly). I found online where it said the ends of all hv battery cables need to be wrapped in electric tape, so I did that. I would’ve thought the HV cables should be removed from the bus bar. I gave it to the dealer and they gave me my core charge back.

Battery Option:
The way I see it there were/are a couple of options; New Toyota HV Battery, replace the one bad module and rebalance, buy a Remanufactured/Rebalanced battery with Gen2 or 3 Modules, Used from salvage Prius, or the new cylindrical design from 2k1toaster.

For me, based on mileage and resale- the choice was clearly between two- a New Toyota battery or 2k1toasters new design. My opinion is that you can’t go wrong with either. I enjoy working on cars and I am mechanically inclined so I wanted to tackle it myself. I chose a new Toyota HV Battery.

I might expand on my choice later based on the options available.

 

Checking my price list- there were 2 that were asking over 3k (not including core). Granted, this is based on an initial price quote before any discussion/haggling, etc.

IIRC, the distribution center had 7 or 9 in stock in April. When I picked mine up at the dealer, there were 2 that had been delivered overnight. Considering that alone multiplied by the number of dealers and gen2s sold- I'm not surprised there could be shortages. I do find it hard to believe though. I was told these don't stay on the shelf very long at the warehouse.