Has Anyone Had To Replace The Battery In Their Prius? I Have A 2004 Prius And Have 70,000 Miles On It. So Far I Have Had No Problems, But Was Wondering If Anyone Has Encountered Any Problems Or Had To Replace The Battery And What It Involves And The Cost.

Which battery?

A friend in Huntsville with a 2001 Prius replaced his battery at 98,000 miles under warranty. I'm at 91,000 miles without a replacement but I've got a spare traction battery I picked up used for $550. But I'll be modifying that battery and swap it in once the current battery warranty expires.

I've seen Ebay batteries in various stages go from $200-$1,400 and understand a new one can be bought for $2,400-4,800 but I don't know if it includes installation. Since I do my own non-warranty work, I tend not to worry about it.

As for my 12VDC battery, I put a little water in the cells this summer. I've never had any problem with the 12VDC battery but this was just to make sure I won't have a problem when the cold weather returns on this four year old battery.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
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Toyota has actually had quite a bit of 'continuing expenses' with the HV battery in the 2001-2003 Prius. It was substantially designed in the 2004 model change, and replacements of the newer one are rare.

The thing I like about the new battery design is that the elctrodes are set up differently, and heating is much more uniform through the cells.

The ebay batteries typically come from salvage dismantled vehicles and as such, we can anticipate (or at least hope) that the cells are still quite well matched. An NHW20 one was seen offered on ebay yesterday for $475 buy-it-now.