I've been servicing hybrid batteries for 4.5 years now and have replaced over 400 of those "relatively rare" failing batteries. I turn away a lot of business because I don't have the capacity to mass produce batteries or put out cheap garbage. I have direct data sources going back 3 years before I started and can document well over 2000 battery failures through only three one-man shop service providers alone. The big national boys are replacing 100s per month. When I return battery cores to the dealership, I see the half dozen batteries THEY'VE replaced IN THE LAST WEEK. They replace HUNDREDS per year. This is not from the "manufacturer" reporting to some moto-journalist. This is from the guy that orders batteries for inventory as they use them up. A little over a year ago, consumption was so high, they were down to 19 Gen2 batteries in the country, and dealers weren't given them up to others. Most of the country was out of stock for a few weeks because replacements were on a freighter from Japan.

I've talked to hundreds of people who just bought their 150K mile 2nd gen Prius only to need a battery a month, a week or even just a weekend after purchase.

I've owned 9 hybrids, and 100% of them had battery failures.

Working in the industry is a little different from reading about it.

 

To the extent you are disagreeing with S Keith regarding the points he is making about hybrid taxi cabs, you are correct about one thing...you ARE wrong. Comparing a taxi cab HVTB that racked up a couple of hundred thousand miles over a few years to a normally driven vehicle that accumulates that kind of mileage over a decade plus ignores one of the major factors of rechargeable battery life, age, with the other being duty cycles. Factor in thermal loads and you're comparing apples to oranges in that sense.

 

Hopefully, the lithium packs in newer EV's have a longer and more trouble-free service life or it doesn't look good for the "modern" world from a climate change perspective or the future of the single occupancy vehicle.

 

I'll just drop in to chime on my FEH ex-taxi. Purchased from the original owner, on it's second transmission but still original traction battery and runs perfect.

 

Do you have the detailed service records of what major components were replaced? Eg. PCM, Power Steering Torque Sensor, front end parts, etc. It might provide some predictive insights.

 

Not many service records. According to the owner when I bought it, the only things it had needed replacing other than the trans and outside what would be considered "normal" maintenance (which I would assume includes front-end wear items such as control arms, sway bar links, etc) were the ABS module and two steering column shafts, both of which are supposedly known common issues. The (third) steering shaft that it's now on has a tiny bit of play, but not what I'd call concerning or warranting replacement just yet.

 

Forgive me for asking in this thread, but what happens to the steering column shafts? Does the steering wheel start to wobble? What years are affected and what happens to them?

 

We just had the steering torque sensor replaced on a 2010 FEH , 150,000km. Wife got into vehicle and the steering was very heavy, manual mode, with a dash display indicating a power steering fault. Vehicle not driveable and had to be towed to a mechanic. With diagnostic, part and installation, taxes, came to $CA1000. This is not a hybrid issue but a 2009-12 Ford Escape problem. Our vehicle had been recalled in 2015 and the vehicle software upgraded to provide a warning message and conversion to manual steering mode on startup if the computer system detected a fault while driving. Since no code was present when recalled, only the software was upgraded. If a fault was present, the recall would have replaced the torque sensor and I believe the steering column back then. This is apparently becoming a more common problem as the vehicles age. Ford won't help and there is apparently a class-action in the U.S. over this issue. Earlier in this story, Ford was replacing the steering column until the torque sensor was made available as a separate item to moderated the cost. That's about all I know at the moment except for the hole in my wallet. Keep your receipt in the event of another recall or successful class action.

 

No worries. I believe the technical term is the "intermediate shaft". The U-joint develops play in it, so steering wheel starts to become more loose and develop a dead zone, a zone where you'll turn the wheel in either direction and nothing happens, and you have to turn it more than that dead zone before the car actually steers. Once it gets bad enough you end up having to constantly correct for the car drifting within the lane due to the dead zone, and basically look like those in-car green-screen scenes in TV shows where the car is clearly going straight but you can see the driver for some reason turning the wheel left and right constantly.

This is also not a hybrid-specific issue, my neighbor's 2010 V6 also had the same problem, and there are plenty of reports online about it occurring to 2nd gen escapes of all models. Such as shown in this video:

 

In our case, I drove the vehicle a lot before it happened including a 500km round trip. I didn't detect anything out the ordinary except a bit of play, maybe, in the tie rods. It tracked true with almost zero correction on a straight road. What the computer didn't like came on suddenly with no prior warning. Restarting the vehicle didn't fix the issue although apparently when you clear the DTC it was working. In view of the complaints on line, it had to be fixed right away. Glad the sensor is now a separate part.