Toyota Prius: What is Prius Battery Replacement cost? $$

"Fathergoose" <com> wrote in message
news:96Wli.103$.. 
If the battery is purchased new, it is just over $3000 plus labor. Batteries
are available on the wrecking yard circuit or ebay for under $1000.

The actual life of the battery is indeterminate; too few have failed to make
a usable estimate. I have heard of about a dozen battery failures (mostly on
the 14,000 member Yahoo! Toyota-Prius forum, suggesting the failure rate is
around 0.1%) and I don't see a pattern - the failures seem pretty random. As
many as half the diagnosed battery failures are suspicious in my mind, but
since nearly all have eventually been paid for by Toyota - even the ones
past the stated warranty period - few people complain.

I think it's safe to say few Prius owners will ever experience a main
battery failure, since several early Prius cars have exceeded 200K miles
without battery trouble. The Prius has been on the streets of Japan for ten
years now without a lot of battery failures. The two we have (2002 models
with 75K miles and 110K miles) sure haven't given us any trouble that decent
gas didn't fix.

Mike

In article <96Wli.103$Wh4.6@trndny06>,
"Fathergoose" <com> wrote:
 

There is no "interval".

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <com> wrote in message
news:usenetserver.com... 
============================
Huh, that is a good thing.
Thanks for the info.
Bill

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: 


Except your own personal version of MTBF...

.. "Fathergoose" wrote: 

I keep most of my cars 6-7 years before I get another. The Prius main
battery is fully covered for 8 years in California so for me it's a
non-issue.

B~

In article <net>,
News <com> wrote:
 

The battery fails or it doesn't fail.

It doesn't have prescribed replacement interval.

And failure is objective, not subjective.

Do you go and replace things that haven't failed?

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: 


The allusion was to (irrespective of the published MTBF, which you
suggest is "not in the car's lifetime" or "never") your own personal
version of MTBF, a.k.a. "when and if it fails".

This is moswt often longer or shorter than the stated or theoretical MTBF.

I have a bad case of mixed emotions...

1. An enormous warranty on the battery (the whole hybrid system
is covered for 150k miles). And, it's an utterly reliable car
with a ~100% confidence level.

2. A serious engineering interest in ripping the system apart
and installing 2-4 more batteries from wrecks, with associated
modified electronics. Even more aggressively - when I got the
car\ three years ago, I did a design for about $25k in lithium
cells with plug-in charging and 100 mile range. That
modification would be half the price today. Such projects are
very, very tempting.