[aprssig] Prius Battery Life and Replacement Cost (was: Control Head Thieves)

[Brian B. Riley]

I recently spoke to a long time Prius owner (he and his wife each  
have one for a total three owned since they came out)  and he says  
that battery failures have been few and that those few that have  
happened the owners bought batteries from salvage yards from wrecked  
Priuses for a hefty discount off new.


---
cheers ... 73 de brian  riley,  n1bq , underhill center, vermont
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On Aug 25, 2007, at 10:01 PM, Ray McKnight wrote:

> Bob, that link doesn't work for me.
> But I have a question, maybe you answer it on your web page...
>
> After watching "Who Killed the Electric Car", the subject of the
> Prius came up.  We all love the concept of the Prius, but not so much
> Most of the other hybrids that fail to get much better mileage than
> A Corolla.  But the big debate revolves around battery life.  Toyota
> And most everyone else all promise the batteries will last "the life
> Of the car", but are not warranted past 100,000 miles.  10 years is  
> also
> Murmured a lot as well.  Everyone has horror stories of  
> rechargeable battery
> Failure, it's not a question of if, just when.  Given that a Prius  
> with
> A bad battery is basically useless and will have near-zero resale  
> value.
> The replacement cost has been quoted at anywhere between $5,500 to  
> over
> $7,500 (I think Ford's are up at the top end of this range).  So will
> Prius be a throw-away 100,000 car?  Who knows for sure if the  
> batteries
> Can survive high mileage or longer than 10 years?  Will it be cost  
> effective
> To sink such a large amount of money replacing batt's in a 10+ year  
> old
> Vehicle?  All of this has caused most of my debating friends  
> conclude that
> Given the high initial acquisition cost, the cost/mile of ownership  
> will
> Eventually be several times higher than a car with 35+mpg costing  
> under
> $18,000.  And, no, I am not ignoring the environmental considerations.
> Comments?
>
> BTW, loved your idea for using the Prius as an inverter battery  
> pack and
> Standby generator.
>
> Ray - WB3ABN
> Kingston, WA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig- 
> bounces at lists.tapr.org]
> On Behalf Of Bob Bruninga
> Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 17:08
> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
> Subject: RE: [aprssig] Thieves, Control heads...and PHEV's
>
>> I've always wondered how effective putting solar panels
>> on an EV would be.  Just how far can you go on
>> 1.6kwh of juice?
>
> The Prius takes about 200 WHrs per mile.
> So I figure on mine, Ill get about 8 miles..
>
> http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/APRS-SPHEV.html
>
>
>
>
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