My car did the same thing summer and worse yet I had battery pack error message thats the battery was dead and to pull over immediately. I also noticed my gas mileage had dropped down to low 30's high 20's.

Now with the cooled weather my mileage has picked up again to the mid 30's but I have a strong feeling once the warmer weather comes around next spring I'll need a new battery.

Right now I'm at 138K miles.

Replace your spark plugs, I just did mine at 135K and the engine turning is mch smoother.

 

I read somewhere you can sometimes find traction batteries on Ebay for around $500. Some salvage yards the larger ones have a method of communicating with other large yards to find a particular part. Salvage yard traction batteries can be sold as low at $350. It's been a few years I read this so who knows what they charge today.

Here is the $1875 rebuild the battery pack place. I have no idea of their quality other than you do get 18 month unlimited guarantee with each pack..

http://www.re-involt.com/Prius_Battery-.html

 

I just had to replace the hybrid battery in my 2007 TCH, which I have owned since June 2006. "Check Hybrid System" light came on and hybrid battery tested out bad. But because I had 97,000 miles, Toyota replaced it at no charge (whew, just made it under the 100,000 mile warranty). The bad news was they kept it 9 days because there were no spares on the island of Oahu and they had to ship one in. If this had happened in 5,000 miles I would have had to pay for everything!

 

I take it they did not prorate the replacement cost, as is common with a conventional 12 volt battery?

 

Ron,

Everywhere except the California CARB states have a 100,000 mile warranty. The CARB states go to 150,000 miles. They will replace this battery under warranty due to the Camry being a partial zero emissions vehicle. By federal law, the warranty on those parts must be at least 100,000 miles free of charge.

 

There are two main external battery factors that determine battery life in an Hybrid car.

It is the amount of stops and starts - not a mileage issue as some would say.
The other factor is temperature- hotter the climate the shorter the battery life.
Colder the climate - longer the battery life but battery output can be reduced.

This is from an Engineer that deals with batteries of all types.

 

I live in the hot desert part of southern New Mexico. I talked to the local toyota tech when I bought the new '07 TCH. My first question was about the traction battery life. He told me about two older Prius here in town. One was a 2000 and the other a 2001 model. Their traction batteries went out around 245,000 miles. He said, the older one had the small plug-in replaceable 7.5 volt battery packs. The packs cost was only $150 and he was on his way after using the charger. The '01 had the non-removable packs. The traction battery had to be replaced which cost $1500 plus labor.

That gave me confidence when he said that about me buying the '07 Camry. All toyota's traction batteries were manufactured by Panasonic up to 2011. I read starting with the 2012 TCH that the traction battery had a improved design and was built at a new Toyota plant here in America. The new design is somewhat smaller, provides more amps and runs cooler than the earlier batteries.

 

200,000 miles?

Andrew Grant, a taxi driver in Vancouver, ran his 1st gen 2004 Prius 1,500,000 km, which is 932,000 miles, on the original battery.

I'd say that's "life of the car", and then some.

Cheers!

Dan