Bought recently a 200k miles 2011 Prius and the previous owner drove the majority of the miles on highways. I was wondering if highway driving puts less wear on the battery and this increase it’s longevity?
The usual explanation is that taxi cabs that never stop driving can go 400K miles without any battery issues whereas some of the more affluent people on here who own one two many Prius that only gets driven a 1 to 3 times a week have all had their hybrid batteries replaced under the 10 years / 150K mile warranty in Carb states. As in freeway miles are well known to put way less wear and tear on a regular car. But for a hybrid battery it's more about how regularly it used rather than freeway or city driving.
certainly, city driving would be more cab like, but i wouldn't worry about it, it could last for years
When I drive on the highway, my battery stays pretty solidly on two bars below the top (six bars?). Driving around town, especially with the A/C on, the battery will drop at stoplights. So I would think a strictly highway vehicle would exercise the battery a lot less than an around-town vehicle. I don't know what that means for battery life, but I would guess highway driving that keeps the battery at a steady high level of charge is probably good? Give it a test on Dr. Prius and see how it grades out!
Highway driving takes less toll on the traction batteries since the engine relies less on the electric motor power than during city driving. For this reason the batteries would cycle less frequently but still remained charged and likely last longer. You know there is a wear on traction batteries (number of charge cycles + time ). But this depends also on the battery type (technology)
Also at freeway speeds you got a motor generator spinning in such a way that there's plenty of amps available to charge the pack and way more opportunities to do so.
