Now that our prius has over 31,000 miles we really like this car and plan on owning it for several years. My concern is eventually the battery will need replacement. Hopefully the engine will keep on going with proper oil changes, maintainence etc. Does anyone out there have any info if maybe 4-6 years from now when the battery will need to be replaced will there be a Lithium battery to replace it. Its sure seems like a no brainer as it would appear with pouring ten of millions of dollars into battery research this should be a reality. alfon
I can't imagine that there wouldn't be an upgrade path by then. Although I would also suspect it would take a lot of reconfiguration of the ECUs since they were likely optimized for the NiHh battery. Just a speculation though. OTOH, I also suspect you won't have a problem with yours for as long as you own it.
Thanks spiderman, hopefully the battery will last, at least as long as we have it. Eventually we will probably trade it in or sell it outright for a plug in type, which in 4-6 years will be widely available in many makes and models. alfon
Do not bet on an upgrade path from NiMH to Li-Ion without hardware and software changes. These are two different technologies and they have to be controlled differently. For example, NiMH can be deep cycled. However, Li-Ion cells have to be kept within a few volts of ideal or the material undergoes irreversible changes. Also, rate of charge is different. Last project I worked on involved changes to a spacecraft bus from NiMH to Li-Ion. It was non-trivial.
Why do you think that 4-6 years from now the battery will need to be replaced? It's warranted for 10 years/150K miles in your state and the other CARB states. It's pretty unlikely Toyota would have a drop in Li-ion replacement for the NiMH pack. By the time you're likely to need a replacement, they will probably be several generations beyond your Prius and there's not much of a point in engineering and validating a brand new replacement for a car they will no longer be earning revenue from selling.
Hopefully it won't need to be replaced. But with the ongoing development in plug in hybrids in 4-6 years we just may decide to buy one. There will probably be several model and makes available. alfon
I know from my RC car hobby that the charging schemes for NiMh and Lithium are very different indeed. I would imagine at the very least the ECU that controls charging would need some kind of modification at the very least, if not a complete change of hardware. Lest you get a big fireball.
Your concern is unwarranted. Many Drivers on this forum have 100k+ miles on their priuses and their hybrid batteries are still good, they're still getting high mileage...etc. The battery is supposed to last the life of the car. My dad's 2004 prius has 150k miles on it, and he still gets 55+ mpg on it (so obviously the hybrid battery is still good). So i'll say relax, and just enjoy the prius. Your battery will last the life of the car, or at the very least, 10 years. Toyota has researched priuses in taxi fleets that have hundreds of thousands of miles and have reported that the batteries are still in good condition. These hybrid batteries can last long because of the way they are managed. The car never allows you to fully discharge the battery, greatly prolonging its life.
