Cargo Van vs. Prius

[Oberneldon]

Tina, thanks for the reference post. Interesting to compare his travels and philosophic views / problem solving vs what went through my mind.

Brent
macaloney.blogspot.com

 

[MK7]

Aren't Prius very costly when the batteries dies out? Like $2000-3000 to replace them yourself?

 

[Oberneldon]

MK7, I have no personal knowledge on the cost of replacing the Prius high voltage battery, but did look online and found the same information on costs to do it.

There appear to be places where you can have bad cells replaced and the cell voltage balanced (important) before you install it. Another appears to swap out the packs. Of course you can buy a new pack.

I bought my Prius in MA, that had adopted the CA standards and it increases the warrantee on the high voltage battery from 100K miles to 150K miles.

I bought my Prius 4 years old with 8K miles. I currently have 44K miles so I have a long way to go before I have to think of the high voltage battery. There are many on the Prius forums that have not had any battery problems to 200K miles. I thought about the potential issue but it soon became a big issue to me to concern myself with.

Brent

 

[Suanne]

Aren't Prius very costly when the batteries dies out? Like $2000-3000 to replace them yourself?

That's my understanding as well MK7; though, partial replacements are also available as Brent explained.

I have more than 210,000 miles on my 04 Prius right now with no signs of any high-voltage battery problems.

I had an opportunity to ride in a 2010 Prius taxi cab yesterday and found that it had more than 500,000 miles on it.  He said that the company owner reports that their Prii's high voltage batteries start going after 150,000 miles.  Although I don't quite understand the reasoning, he said it's because their cars are "on" 24 hours every day and that it makes the high voltage batteries wear out faster than a typical Prius owner would experience.