Prius Battery - GreenHybrid

flare · #1 (**permalink**) 04-11-2004, 03:52 PM

My friend asked me about the battery and here are some things I couldn't answer!

1) Does anyone know if the Prius battery's capacity decreases because of use?

Now, I know this situation would be a long time from now but...
2) If the Prius' battery needed to be replaced, what would happen to the dead Prius battery? Where would it go? (Landfills?)

the best answer i could give him would be... you wouldn't need to replace the whole battery and probably just individual sections of it. that way it wouldn't harm the environment as much.. but I dunno

ericbecky · #2 (**permalink**) 04-11-2004, 07:36 PM

flare,
I know that the first generation Prius batteries were Panasonic nickel-metal hydride batteries which can be recylced. So I am assuming the 2004's would be able to be recycled, too.

Christian · #3 (**permalink**) 04-12-2004, 07:38 PM

Hey there,

The 2004 Prius also uses NiMH batteries which are recyclable and according to HybridCars.com Toyota (as well as Honda) have said they would recycle the batteries of their cars.

It is unlikely that individual cells will be replaced in the battery pack. Instead the whole pack will probably be replaced at the same time. This has to do with the fact that as batteries age they will exhibit slightly different performance characteristics and you generally want them all performing alike.

For the degradation over time Toyota claims to have run the cars out to 150,000 miles without performance degradation of the NiMH batteries and they warranty the batteries for 8 years/100,000 miles see Toyota FAQ. I can't vouch for this number with outside info about NiMH. I saw a figure of 10,000 discharge to 60% cycles (which is equivalent to 3.5 discharges every day) for the prius battery before significant performance degradation but I didn't see any data.

So, short answers: 1) The batteries are recyclable and Toyota says it will do so and 2) The batteries may last out to 150,000 miles without significant performance degradation.

Hope this helps
Christian

Jason · #4 (**permalink**) 04-12-2004, 08:28 PM

Christian,

The 150,000 mi warranty that I recall (as required to achieve the emissions rating) is for the "hybrid system", not including the battery replacement?

Christian · #5 (**permalink**) 04-13-2004, 05:29 PM

I did a little more investigating.

Here is the Toyota FAQ entry about the warranty. See above post for link.

Quote:

Hybrid-Related Component Coverage: Prius' hybrid-related components, including the HV battery, battery control module, hybrid control module and inverter with converter, are covered for 8 years/100,000 miles. The HV battery may have longer coverage under emissions warranty. Refer to applicable Owner's Warranty Information booklet for details.

This includes the Hight Voltage (HV) Battery. Looking at my owner's warranty booklet I see that in the great state of California (also Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont) the coverage extends out to 10 years/150,000 miles for the battery and 15 years/150,000 miles for the rest of the emission control equipment (p.20).

Federal regulations for Emissions control is considerably less than the state specified ones but I think the Warranty in the Toyota FAQ comes from the Toyota Warranty of the Hybrid System.

So I'm pretty sure the battery is covered and the extent of the coverage will depend upon the state.

Christian

Jason · #6 (**permalink**) 04-13-2004, 05:40 PM

So I wasn't crazy!

flare · #7 (**permalink**) 04-14-2004, 10:07 PM

Great info! Thank you very much!