Has anybody recently had pay the cost of replacing a traction battery because it was outside of the 100,000 mile warranty? If so, what was the best price you could get from Toyota?

Also, I'm sure by now there are thousands of salvaged total loss Toyota hybrids sitting in junk yards. So there should be a used battery market. Has anybody bought a salvaged battery from a total loss and if so what was the cost?

Thanks.

 

my buddy runs a repair shop. community buys a lot of Prii, so he's well familiar with pricing and quality. he told me that those batteries are airplane type batteries, very reliable, hence there is no market demand for them. he bought one for $400 off ebay. as far as vehicle was not rear -ended....

 

I heard from a toyota tech that the replacement battery runs $1500 from their parts department. Not sure if it was for the Prius or Camry. Maybe Prius as he was telling me how a Prius in town that needed a replacement battery. This car had over 160,000 miles on the clock.

Two other Prius he mentioned a few years ago had some battery work. One at 148,000 and the other about 154,000 miles. No doubt the NiMh type battery packs will come down in price as more high mileage cars need them replaced.

I was worried if the new 2012 Camry would use the newer Lithium Ion battery pack. No, toyota went with a improved Nickle Hydride pack similar to the one we use in our 2007 models. My thoughts are the Lithium pack would cost lots more being new to the car market. Then again a car with 150,000 miles on it, maybe by then the lithium packs would come down in price.

 

this is an old article and they've definitely gone down in price, way cheaper than replacing the transmission.


http://editorial.autos.msn.com/artic...umentid=708913

 

Not a battery expert...this is what I heard, so take it with a grain of salt...

...but I believe the battery is a set of cells. It's unlikely one would need all of the cells to be replaced. In reality, one might need a couple of cells to be replaced. As such, battery issues might not be as expensive as a total replacement.
Again, not sure about this...

 

I saw somewhere that some Honda traction batteries that are called rebuilt are for sale. I forget the price and where I read that.

The local toyota tech here in town told me the few very high mileage packs he seen go bad only had one cell, sometimes two next to each other that had went bad. My guess the toyota traction battery may be built where you can't actually get into the cells to replace any bad ones.

 

Check www.re-envolt.com

 

Sorry try www.reinvolt.com

 

Thanks Harold, a interesting webpage to keep around. Just think around 5 years or so the 2007 hybrid option will near be paid for itself and then it's higher mpg should really pay off. Any traction battery problems places like the link you provided could really help out.