Toyota Prius the Taxi champion

Wow, talk about some hate in the comments. Still a lot of misinformation and just plain ole FUD being thrown around.

One even said that the battery would loss 20% capacity every year and cost $8K to replace. Or that all matter was time in battery life, not miles. Anything to dismiss the Prius I guess.

 

Regardless of the comments at the end of that awesome article, I'm choosing to focus on the fact that the batteries in both cars did not need to be replaced until WELL OVER the 100,000 mile mark. That's is GREAT news...especially since I invested in this car with the intention of keeping it for as long as it wants to last.

Dave

 

Their ignorance is bliss for those of us who need/want to buy a Prius. Without those idiots, demand could be much higher than what it is.

 

Pretty interesting.

The Prius taxi champ replaced the battery after around 2.5 years or 500,000 kilometers/310,000 miles because the battery started to show low voltage readings.

Is the article referring to the hybrid battery or the little 12 volt battery? I assume it's the hybrid battery.

 

I like this response. It's similar to the response I give people that raise the comment about the cost of maintenance for the Prius. I've never verified the number of moving parts, perhaps someone here can:

"Quincy Says:
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:31 am The Prius DOES cost less to service than a normal car.
There is a total of just 22 moving parts in its drivetrain– No heat-generating torque converter, no clutch, no CVT belts. The single-gearset Power Split Device transmission experiences no gear-shifting wear-and-tear a normal car does. Transmission fluid change every 60,000 miles.
The Prius uses regenerative braking. You don’t need to change its brake pads or rotors until 100,000 miles. Try that in a normal car and see what happens.
The Prius has no timing belt, no alternator, and no starter solenoid. Less things to wear out and need replacement. (the engine is electronically controlled and can be started or shut off on-the-fly, while the car is moving).
As aforementioned the battery is designed to last at least 10 years / 150,000 miles, and who would be STUPID enough to buy a brand-new battery to put in a 10-year-old car? You look for a salvaged battery that costs about $400 from a wrecked car, put that in your 10-year-old Prius, drive it for a few years more, and get a new car.
Buying a brand-new $3000 Traction battery for a 10-year-old car is just as foolish as buying a brand-new engine to put in an old klunker."

 

The Prius battery only lasts 187K to 312K miles? My 2004 Corolla is hitting 100K right now. I plan on hitting 200K in four more years. When I sold my Chevy Silverado in 2004, it had 215K miles and it felt like it could go another 215K. So ... how much does this battery cost, and will people have to put their names on a waiting list and wait six months to get the new battery? And, what exactly constitutes needing to be replaced? When I bought my cell phone two years ago, it could go a whole week without charging. Today, I charge it every night ... but it still does its job!

I know a lot of people that drive cars beyond ten years. A 1998 model year car is now ten years old in 2008. I see cars from the late 90s all the time. $3000 is a lot less than buying a whole new car. If you think that's foolish, I have some sub-prime loans and SUV leases I'd like to broker to you.

 

I was merely quoting someone else's response. However, depending on the circumstances I would replace my Prius battery with a used battery for much cheaper. For example, if I hit 100k and was out of warranty (I'm in AZ so I don't have the 150k mile warranty like you do) and my battery died and the option was between a $3k battery and let's say a year old battery from a junk yard Prius that was totaled in an accident with very low miles for $400, I'd go the $400 route. It really depends on the circumstance.

 

I'm also in the $400-wreck-salvaged-battery camp.

After 8 years, a Prius in good working condition with 100,000 miles (right when its standard 8-year / 100,000-mile warranty expires) is worth about $8000 according to Kelley Blue Books.

If the battery in that car fails, its value drops further-- Down to $6000. I don't think I can justify spending $3000 on a new traction battery on a car worth only twice that. 10 years, and the value drops even further, probably another grand or two.

At that point, the car has the capacity to turn into a bottomless black hole that just keeps swallowing your money-- You don't know if other major problems are just around the corner, and you may end up spending more money on the car than what it's worth.

Frankly, spending a lot of money on a problematical junker that needs major repairs every few months doesn't make any financial sense-- It makes more sense to sell the car while it still has some value, save the repair money and put it all on a down payment for a new car that will give you another 10 years of problem-free service.

 

Something that most people seem to miss with this article is that this Taxi company has 32 Prius taxis. Of these 32 vehicles, they have replace the battery in only 2 so far. They just ordered another 8 Prius Taxi's so they must not be too worried about battery life.

An OEM Toyota Prius traction battery costs $2074 at ToyotaPartsCheap.com

Your cell phone battery is not a good comparison to the Prius battery. A cell phone battery is Lithium-Ion while the Prius uses a Ni-MH battery. The Prius only allows 20% of the battery capacity to be used, while you abuse your cell phone battery by draining it all the way. (The best thing you can do for a battery is to limit the depth of discharge and to recharge it immediately after use.)

 

Uhh... I think the prius allows 40% of its battery to be used

0-40% is reserved, 80-100% is reserved.
40%-80% is available for use.

 

Far out.

 

Technically speaking NI-MH were cell phone batteries of yesteryear... yes, they are Lithion-Ion now, but they were Ni-MH several years ago.

 

Toyota service bulletin, came out sometime ago stating: No whole battery pack needs to be replaced. You can now replace the "Bad cell/modules"
24 modules in a Gen II traction battery ? You can ge the whole battery for around $1300~$1400 before installation labor. So each cell/module cost around $59.00 ? This is far cry from back in 04 when people were talikng $5000 to replace the traction battery.

 

I understand what you are saying now. I would opt for the salvage battery as well if I could find a decent one. When I searched for cell phone batteries on Amazon.com a month ago, 80% of hundreds of buyer feedback comments said the generic batteries were junk - so I decided to just keep the battery that I already have. For the Prius, I'd make sure the salvage battery was an original Toyota battery.
--
I'm somewhat confused about what everyone is saying about a battery only using some but not all of the cells. Being a biochemist, I've made galvanic cells in lab before, and in physics lab we hooked up several batteries in series to show how voltage increases, and hooked them up in parallel to show how the voltage is the same but current increases. I'm not understanding what you are saying.
.

 

The battery in the Prius is similar to the batteries that you played with in physics lab. The Prius battery pack is not a single battery but 24 small batteries wired together. If one battery goes bad, a qualified technician could test the battery pack and replace only the battery that is bad instead of the entire battery pack.

 

Hi Rybold. The prius uses all the cells in the traction battery. I think your confusion may be coming from quotes like this one:

What Bob64 is referring to is the range of battery charge (state of charge or SOC) the Prius normally operates through. It will neither max out its charging capacity nor let it fall below 40% SOC. Clearer?

 

Gen II battery pack has 28 modules. 7.2V per module. Since NiMH chemistry has 1.2V so there are 6 cells in one module. If you do the math, there are 168 cells making a total of 201.6V.

 

Jhinton and Samiam, both of you answered my question. Thank you.
Usbseawolf2000, thank you for the added info.

 

As I said in another thread, my SOC went down to 27.5% Saturday going up a long steep hill at 60mph, only a fraction of 1 bar on the mfd. At speed, it can definitely go below 40%. Others have gone below 40% too.