Hybrid Battery

Call two or three local Toyota dealership parts departments near you if you plan on DIY. Price varies for each dealership.

 

call every one you are willing to drive to. there's no other place to get them, and they won't ship

 

You want a Sodium battery, from Jack
Toyota hybrid battery upgrade pack– NexPower Energy

 

OEM for long life and troublefree reliability. The others don't come close.

 

There are those who will always complain about something.
They just have to be negative. They are his "pretend" competitors.
I've "ignored" most of the know it all's and trouble makers.
Their scare tactics just don't work on me.

I can only speak from my experience. And if I wasn't happy with the product,
I certainly would not recommend it.
Everything Jack has said about the battery, has been true for me.
He's always been available for me. He may a little slow to respond sometimes, but he
is doing other things.

You should contact him, go right to the source. Leave the hearsay behind.
Tell him I sent you.

I've been using my with NO issues since September 2014, about 30,000 miles.

 

One way to get better advice is to provide your location. Some cities have independents that will sell brand new oem batteries installed for the price of an aftermarket that often start to fail in less than two years.

 

I believe that date is a typo and should be September 2024?

 

That was in a version of the lithium battery from the same company. I don't know that it's in the sodium version.

 

Has anyone actually purchased an OEM battery over-the-counter from a dealer recently?

I'm still not convinced you'd be able to get a dealer to sell you one without letting them 'diagnose' and install it themselves at a wildly inflated fee, especially with a core charge of $1,300. I know others have done it and I believe them (and I love to hear their stories because it gives me hope), but I think you have to get lucky.

But a big factor should be whether or not getting a brand new expensive battery is the best idea for your car.

 

I think the battery prices have gone up a bit since last year, but still well worth the price of replacement. A new battery now costs about $2500 - $3000. A new Prius, about $35000. So I think it's worth it. OEM batteries are the most reliable and are proven to be good for 10+ years. The rest of the stuff out there, whatever they may be claiming, will be inferior to what's proven by the OEM battery

As for the core charge, you can bring them any old beat up battery to get your core money back, as long as it's an OEM toyota pack. That core charge is refundable so shouldn't be a concern

 

The place I bought a new oem battery from six years ago came to me and did a mobile install in 45 minutes. $2250 total. Their current price installed is $2495 for new oem. with a 5 year warranty you won't need or think about. They buy in quantity close to wholesale (was $1600 now likely $1850). No core charge since they installed and took mine.

That was Hometown Hybrids. Since you are not disclosing your location we can't offer more suggestions other than to stay away from aftermarket new NiMh, Lithium and Sodium. I would buy mix and match used before those products.

 

I get all that, I'm 100% pro OEM, but stories of people being able to go to a dealership and have them sell you a new battery over the counter out the door seem to be few and far between. It is more common for them to say we only sell them to customers for an in-house install, which is going to add a lot to that $3K.

I could be totally wrong, that's why I'm curios if anyone has done it recently.

 

The name of the add on device name started with “soother”. Gotta love the marketing name to ease customers who purchased the battery and heard about the add on name.

 

Most oem stuff is good. If you want to pay the high price.
You can't buy one over the counter in Florida, and most other states, any longer.
Likely soon you won't be able to anywhere else.
They will only deliver one to a certified hybrid shop. If you know of a place that will purchase it for
you and let you take it, fine.
But there is no guarantee you are getting "new" cells. Some say they are new, but have not
been able to verify that they are actually new.
There are many aftermarket parts for the Prius that are just as good or better than oem.
Do not let those who hate the Prius try to fill you will ruin you into buying aftermarket parts.
They would be happy if you just get rid of your Prius. They likely are just here to spread their
bad experiences on you so they can feel better about themselves...

 

You're totally wrong. Anybody can go in and buy it from the parts department

 

Fair enough, do you know someone who's done it recently?

 

You can't buy one over the counter in Florida, and most other states, any longer.
But there is no guarantee you are getting "new" cells. Some say they are new, but have not
been able to verify that they are actually new.
Do not let those who hate the Prius try to fill you will ruin you into buying aftermarket parts.
They would be happy if you just get rid of your Prius. They likely are just here to spread their
bad experiences on you so they can feel better about themselves.

Where in the world do you get your information? Do you need to get on meds or something?

 

Just call a couple dealers, don't make it harder than it needs to be. Friends and relatives don't just run down to a dealer every couple days to buy a hybrid battery.

Have you ever swapped one? Are you 100% aware of the pieces that need to be removed from your battery and installed on the new assembly? If not, I'd say you have a 50/50 chance of doing it wrong. There's a reason the dealer wants it to be done by an experienced shop. 75% of DIYers, if not more, screw up HV battery work. Most don't even realize it, then find something else to blame it on. Ask anyone who actually works on HV batteries how many 'other people's' mistakes they've had to fix, or how many cores they've disassembled that have absolutely "amazing" DIY work done to them. Heck, there's plenty of experienced people that actually don't know crap about electricity and think they're the bomb at working on batteries, but I wouldn't trust 'em with a build as far as I could throw them.