My 2007 Prius is finally ready for retirement after 390,000 miles. Unfortunately, it has been so reliable I replaced the hybrid battery only 15,000 miles or so. I may buy another 2007 Prius with 120K miles. Can I pull the battery out of the first car and store it for when the "new" one needs replacement? Or can they not be stored for extended periods? Awesome vehicles.
Mikey, If the replacement battery was a new toyota replacement, you could probably put it on the garage floor for at LEAST a year, maybe two, with no problems. Your best bet would probably be to just install it in your new 2007 shortly after taking ownership. Why wait?
Hmm, your best bet is to swap the newer battery into the newer 2007 Prius. Put the old battery in your 2007 retired Prius and sell it as is and recoup some investment. I hope you will keep posting about your Prius! Love reading your stories! Great cars!!!
#1 Reality is this NiMH batteries store quite well, if you put it in a cool place(not cold as in freezing) even better. Could last a year or two with-out problems assuming everything with that battery is ok right now. #2 self discharging does not hurt NiMH cells only reverse charging does. #3 As long as you can invest 30 bucks on a led charger (the lpc-100-350 from meanwell) and give it a boost of like three-four hours after like months or years in storage it should at least theoretically be fine. #4 putting it in the car without charging it up at least a bit could kill it when the engine gets started by mg1, #5 charging it more than 3-4 hours without the blower and lower duct could kill it too but you could take those out of the car and use them . #6 it being stored for a few months means all cells are empty and voltage is just surface charge. #7 but yeah it will keep a year or two easy. Store at 55F-72F and it will be fine. That's my $.02 terramir
Wow, you're original battery lasted around 11 years and 375k miles? That's unbelievable. Stories like this is why I purchased a Prius in the first place. I hope the 3rd gens will have as many success stories as the 2nd gens. And I'd probably immediately replace the battery. It should last you until around 2027, so why wait?
I appreciate your post as I will be leaving a Prius V behind in a garage for the winter and hadn't thought about the impact that might have on the battery until now. I'm curious about #3 LED charger. What does it do? What do you connect it to (NiMH or Starter)? Thanks for the great post.
