Hi all, I am dealing with a possible failure of my 2005 Gen 2 hybrid battery. The car has 190,000 miles on it. I replaced the hybrid battery in late 2017 with a reconditioned 2013 battery from Electron Automotive in Anaheim, and it has done very well until now. I'm not going to do the install myself, so that should eliminate a lot of options. I'm located in Los Angeles. OPTIONS: 1. Going back to Electron. I am not unhappy with the life of my current battery from them, which lasted 8 years. Electron now sells these brand new CYLINDRICAL CELL BATTERIES, which they apparently make themselves, and which run around $2700. Electron claims they are at least as good as OEM, if not better. Any thoughts on this? 2. Could get a Toyota OEM battery installed. 3. Get someone who can repair/replace bad cells in my current battery? (I'm not too inclined to do this). 4. Other suggestions welcome.
8 years is good, I only got 5 out of a round D-cell conversion. $2700 is too much for a round cell conversion, they are usually around $1500-$1700 The best bang for the buck, IMHO, buy this new OEM Toyota battery, the case does not fit your Prius, you're just using the cells, and have a hybrid shop swap the cells into your case. G9510-47063, this is the Toyota part number, search and find a dealer near you, it's around $1600, not all dealers have this price. And it's better to pick it up, shipping is expensive if they even do it. And make sure they take a core like you have, that's been reconditioned.
Ask Electron if they'll put their money where their mouth is and give you a federally mandated new battery pack OEM warranty - 8 year or 100K miles. It is a new pack after all and they claim it's as good or better than OEM; so back it up!!!! Historically cylindrical modules hasn't held up as well as the OEM Toyota packs. Rebuilds has also been a 'crap-shoot'; you've been rather lucky with yours. IMHO; the Toyota OEM packs have a proven track record and will likely be the last pack you put in that car. YMMV
NexPower? I have no first hand knowlegde of these guys but sodium-ion batteries are an option. There's a few posts about this product and I have not read anything negative but prevoius products and the owners customer service has drawn criticism.
Electron Automotive is trying to sell you the type of battery that Honda and Toyota were using in the late 1990's when they were first developing hybrid cars. The cylindrical are inferior by every measure, especially lifespan. NexPower energy's Sodium-Ion on the other is the most advanced battery chemistry for hyrbid cars and can handle super extreme cold and heat even better than OEM. It's35 years more advance than cylindrical. If I were you I'd take your car to Hybrid Pit at 7314 Melrose St, Buena Park, CA 90621 Phone: (855) 492-4440 They'll have OEM and Nexpower to sell you.
This is one of the reasons why you will hardly ever see a 2003-2005 Honda Civic Hybrid. Honda stopped making packs with new cells and the only option was aftermarket packs with reconditioned (used) sticks (perhaps the worst packs ever sold) or those with "new" Chinese sticks - which never lasted long either. The other reason was the notoriously unreliable CVT in those models.
Read this recent thread about the NexPower V3 sodium-ion (2 pack design) battery and draw your own conclusion.https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3557893
The two good things about those old Honda Hybrids compared to old Toyota Hybrids is that you could buy them with a manual transmission and not CVT. And even better is Honda electronics are far easier to hack/spoof without creating error codes that shut everything down. The Gen1 Honda Insight for example has Linsight.org options so you can build a plugin hybrid with Lithium-Ion packs... Also some have upgraded the electric motor with a way bigger motor and are getting 150mpg and all EV range on short trips around town. Toyota has never made it easy for hackers to do what Honda nerds have been doing at the race track and with battery packs for decades.
