Does millage or age have the greatest effect on battery pack life?

[IrishKisco]

I am in the market for a GEN 3 PRIUS to replace my 2005 PRIUS whose Battery Pack just died. The PRIUS had just turned over 200,000 miles. I want to purchase a pre-owned PRIUS and our dealer has a 2013 with only 28,000 miles. I would think that would be great for a non-hybrid car. However, my concern is that the Battery pack will die due to age long before I put ample miles on the car. Since I keep cars for a long time, I'm thinking I'd be better of with a newer vehicle even if had more miles. Thoughts? Opinions?

[Anthony Poli]

6 hours ago, IrishKisco said:

I am in the market for a GEN 3 PRIUS to replace my 2005 PRIUS whose battery Pack just died. The PRIUS had just turned over 200,000 miles. I want to purchase a pre-owned PRIUS and our dealer has a 2013 with only 28,000 miles. I would think that would be great for a non-hybrid car. However, my concern is that the battery pack will die due to age long before I put ample miles on the car. Since I keep cars for a long time, I'm thinking I'd be better of with a newer vehicle even if had more miles. Thoughts? Opinions?

 

Hi,

Your dealer should normally give the car a hybrid health check before you take the car, if this is done once a year, then you can extend the warranty.

I bought my Auris last August, it was a 2010 model with 32000, 2 owners and through my Toyota I was able to check its service history. I have also taken the deal on extending the warranty. So i have another 2 years after my initial 1 year I had when i bought the car.

So far the only people needing Battery replacements on here, were ones where the car had ran out of fuel and the Battery pack had been completely exhausted. Then having to wait for the Toyota Battery charger to become available.

Lets see what others say on here.

[kithmo]

A difficult one to call but I would say Ni-mH batteries would die with lack of use rather than age and 28K miles in 3 years is plenty of use and should be ok for another 150K plus.

[PeteB]

8 hours ago, Anthony Poli said:

... So far the only people needing battery replacements on here, were ones where the car had ran out of fuel and the battery pack had been completely exhausted...

There are plenty of examples now of original Gen 1 Prius HV batteries failing, including my old 2002 model.  I sold it in 2011 (9 years old) with 163,000 miles on the clock to a chap who buys, sells and maintains Hybrids.

When I sold the car it ran like new even with that mileage, but he told me the Battery failed late last year at almost 180,000 miles.  Fortunately for the chap he sold it to, he was able to dismantle the Battery, test the cell sticks, and rebuild it with the good sticks and some good ones from write-offs he'd bought.  He says it's now running like new again, and for a fraction of the cost of fitting a recon Battery from Toyota.

[He also bought a 2007 Gen 2 Prius from my old firm that had been converted to a plug-in (uses that as his daily transport) and a 'dead' Gen 1 from my dealer that he managed to get going again].

[Anthony Poli]

180000 miles and 9 years old, not bad innings.

So a 3 year old with 27000 miles, shouldn't be too much of a risk then. :-)

[PeteB]

actually, it was 13 years old when the Battery failed at 180k...

[Anthony Poli]

actually, it was 13 years old when the battery failed at 180k...

That's even more impressive. :-)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ColinBarber]

It's really down to the number of cycles the batteries have had. High mileage would suggest more charge cycles but unless you know how those miles were achieved you cannot really tell - for example if most of the life was spend at high speed on the motorway then the batteries aren't being used that much.

I'd not be too concerned about the batteries, there is a lot of over capacity built-in to avoid them being damaged. Most issues are the result of one or two cells failing and there are many companies/people that can replace those, and more serious issues can be resolved by replacing the Battery pack with one from a written off vehicle - no need to purchase a replacement from Toyota.