the wife and i are looking at getting a 2007-2008 honda civic hybrid. i currently drive a gas hog truck that gets about 14mpg and i drive about 25k a year. my math tells me that i could save roughly $3000-$4000 per year in gas depending on actual gas mileage achieved, driving style, and city\hwy driving. anything over 42mpg in the civic would be three times better than what im getting in the truck so at first glance it seems like a no brainier. THEN i start talking to people and they warned me about the expensive battery service. i went to a dealer and it was like pulling teeth trying to get a price out the service guy. he said they've never had to change a battery. i said well that's fine but if the warranty is for 8 years\80,000 miles i will be hitting that in 3.2 years and i want to know how much i would potentially have to pay for this service. he said just the battery could be over $3000 and then labor to put it in. you know before i buy the civic these guys want to act like you'll never have to change the battery but ive got a feeling as soon as you pull up for service and have 80,001 miles they are going to want you to replace the main battery. so i figured to get some honest unbiased info i would find a message board like this.

any info on potential service cost would be helpful in figuring exactly our savings would be greatly appreciated.

so, no one knows?

If you drive at least somewhat conservatively you should never need to replace the battery grid. The batteries are designed to out live the car, in general.

Before I bought a HCH-II a lot of people said don't buy it, the batteries are expensive to replace. I don't know of anyone who has replaced them actually. Maybe someone here has, and can tell more about it?

Just keep it charged regularly and you will have no problems. You can do this by driving in "S" gear/mode when it gets below four cells/bars.

Also, if you choose the highest extended warranty it covers like eight years/120,000miles. It includes the hybrid batteries. If you are really worried about having to eat the cost of battery replacement unexpectedly then go for the mega-warranty.

There are Priuses on the road with +300,000 miles.

I'd say you can easily count on 150k. In 6-15 years when and if you need a new battery you can bet that economies of scale will bring the price of that battery down dramatically.

I trust Honda.

From http://www.hybridcars.com:
"Myth #2. Hybrid batteries need to be replaced.
Worries about an expensive replacement of a hybrid car's batteries continue to nag many potential buyers. Those worries are unfounded. By keeping the charge between 40% and 60% —never fully charged and never fully drained—carmakers have greatly extended the longevity of nickel metal hydride batteries.

The standard warranty on hybrid batteries and other components is between 80,000 and 100,000 miles, depending on the manufacturer and your location. But that doesn't mean the batteries will die out at 100,000 miles. The Energy Dept. stopped its tests of hybrid batteries—when the capacity remained almost like new—after 160,000 miles. A taxi driver in Vancouver drove his Toyota Prius over 200,000 miles in 25 months, and the batteries remained strong.

There's little to no accurate information about the cost for replacing a hybrid battery, because it hasn't been a requirement with today's models."

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/3686.html

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/4955.html

Well... I'll try to answer this one.

Battery pack replacements do occur. Many times they happen as warranty replacements on older/earlier Honda hybrid models. Now, the cost of replacing such packs can reach $3K but it is possible to acquire these for well under $1500 and even less depending on where you source them from. eBay is such a source.

However, the HCH-2's battery pack is designed to last much longer than the "life time" reflected by the original warranty. Like the battery packs on the Prius II, the corrent estimates is that the battery pack life is likely be at least twice that of the warranty itself. It is likely that battery replacements on the newer Civic Hybrids will never be performed except for a small statistical number or those that are involved in accidents.

Fortunately for us, there's mounting evidence of this life expectancy due to the increased use of 2nd generation hybrid vehicles currently in fleet use.

The concern about the life expectancy of a current tech battery pack in the newer hybrids is in my view seriously overblown and used mostly by the technology detractors and folks who know very little about hybrids anyway.

Most dealerships are not a good source of info either. Fleet operators are in my view the best sources. So far Taxi companies are the biggest providers of feedback and the outlook is astounding to say the least.
I personally expect the battery packs on my HCH-II's and the packs on my company Prius's to last the life of the vehicles.

Cheers;

MSantos

I agree, they seem to know little or nothing about the HCH. Some of what they think they know, is the exact opposite.

thanks for the reply. it just made me a little suspicious when no one in the service dept wanted to tell me how much that service would cost. if its something they are only going to recommend replacing when the car needs it that's one thing but if its something that they are going to automatically recommend when the car hit 80,000 miles then that's something different. in my case that would be changing the battery system every 3.2 years. if that was the case im sure you understand my consern.

you have eased my worries about this a little so thanks.

I came across a website today that had a link showing "end-of-life" data for some fleet vehicles where they tested fuel economy and battery function.

http://avt.inl.gov/

There's a PDF file over to the right, titled "Honda Insights, Honda Generation I Civics, and Toyota Generation I Priuses End-of-Life Testing Report". It's very detailed, but it seems like the batteries held up well after being in fleet service for 160,000 miles.

I asked my Honda salesman the same question, since I was purchasing a used hybrid. He said they'd never had to do a battery replacement for a customer's hybrid yet. I got the extended warranty just in case. The warranty on a newer model HCH should be even better, since it has a better emissions rating (AT-PZEV), and they are warranted for a longer period than the older models.