I am on my 3rd hybrid and I was curious if anyone has had there hybrid battery fail and did it cost you anything to replace


my first 2007 hybrid the battery failed at 88k but it was replaced free of charge


Philip
2016 ES300h
2013 TAH Limited
2007 Camry Hybrid

 

That was a concern when we were shopping for my wife's car (bought 13 ES300h), but this system has been on the market for many years, plus there is an 8 yr/100,000 mi warranty on the batteries.

 

My sister-in-law just had to replace the battery on her Camry hybrid. It was ten years old and had 125K miles on it. Toyota charged her $4600. Yikes. She was pretty disappointed and felt that negated any potential gas savings she had saved over the life of the car. This is the first person I have known that had to replace a hybrid battery. I guess it is a foregone conclusion that the battery will eventually need to be replaced.

 

that's just wrong it should have gone under warranty, and if that happened to me I make sure they know its the last one I would buy from them and I tell the world what they did. and I would not pay 4600 for it I would have burned the hybrid up at there dealership

 

It was very disappointing to hear of this, but what is really reasonable for battery life though? Show me one piece of consumer electronics with a battery that lasts over ten years. I agree that it is very disappointing, I'm just not sure where our expectations should be. Is a $4600 repair at 125k miles reasonable? I don't know the answers to these questions but it certainly makes me wonder just what we should realistically be expecting. A rechargeable battery is only good for so many charge/discharge cycles. It is certain that the battery will fail at some point.

 

Here is my analysis. I have put 26,392 miles on my 2013 ES300h so far and have spent $2,005.92 on fuel. I track every fill up. I have averaged 36 mpg since I purchased it. My 2005 RX330 averaged 18 mpg so I am getting double the mpg of what I was getting. Therefore I have saved $2,005.92 by driving my hybrid. Lets just say that made up the difference between the hybrid and the standard engine since I did not pay MSRP. If I was able to go another 104k miles, 130k miles total, before replacing the hybrid battery, my savings on gas over my RX would be about an additional $8,000. This more than pays for the battery replacement while all the time helping in a small way with air pollution. Not to mention the savings on brake replacement since most Toyota hybrids go over 100k miles before needing the pads replaced. IMHO I am ahead of the game.

 

With gas prices where they're at, you really aren't saving that much anymore. Also, you should be comparing your ES with your ESh to see the real difference.

I'm thinking of pulling a John Denver and hording a few thousand gallons of gas at today's prices.

 

This morning, I paid $1.41 for gas, and that price has been going down by about a penny or two a day. From talking with people at a few dealerships, I would think that, for anyone who has an interest in buying a hybrid vehicle, now would be a great time to do so because, with the continuing decline in gas prices, the people at those dealerships are having to offer huge discounts to move the hybrids off of their lots. I suspect that the drop in gas prices is also having a secondary effect on the used values of hybrid vehicles.

On a side note, for me, the drop in gas prices is costing me more than it is saving me because the value of the stocks that I've bought in the energy sector in the last couple of years have dropped by about 40%.

 

Geez, I thought we were doing great here in SE Pennsylvania at Costco for $1.77 a gallon. $1.41 in Illinois is a real bargain... I was in Australia recently and a gallon of regular gas there is $5.14 Australian, $3.63 US.

 

I live in the northwest corner of the state where taxes are much lower than in Chicago and its surrounding counties. Also, one of the chains opened a new station in the last couple of months, and there appears to be a mini gas price war going on between that new station and the established station in town.

 

FWIW my wife's 2007 Camry Hybrid battery failed.


in 2014 Toyota updated the warranty on the 2007-2011 Camry's from 8/80 to 10/150 so ours was covered free of charge under the new warranty terms.


The battery itself technically didn't fail it was still charging @ 95%, the issue was actually the copper connectors between each of the battery packs becoming corroded and then the individual packs not being able to communicate to each other or the ECU.


Toyota did replace the battery, not fix that issue, they informed us of what the actual issue was and that the battery pack we received was a reconditioned battery pack, but it still carries the 10/150 warranty, so we have until 10/7/2017 on it.

 

not possible, the Camry Hybrid didn't come out until 8/2006 as a 2007 model year, so her car can't be 10 years old.


additionally in 2014 Toyota upped the warranty on the Camry Hybrid battery from 8/80 to 10/150 under a warranty extension campaign due to pressure from Consumer Report and the NHTSA due to issues with the VSC and ABS systems which are directly related to the hybrid drive system, so her battery should have been covered under warranty like ours was.

 

I have a couple of OT questions that, as someone who has never owned a hybrid vehicle, I'm curious about.

When hybrid batteries die, do they give any warning before doing so, or do they just work one minute and stop working the next? Also, when they do die, can the vehicle still be driven with the internal combustion engine or are they incapable of being driven at all?

 

Prius owners past the warranty period also have much cheaper ways of fixing the battery pack. Individual cells sometimes can't provide the required voltage - Toyota changes the whole pack, but it's possible to swap out single cells for a lot less. I assume Camry Hybrid and ES300h will be able to do the same 10 years down the line.

 

I cannot debate warranties on the Camry hybrid, I can only tell you what happened with a family member's car (and she stated 10 years so I assumed a 2006 model year but she didn't offer the year in our conversation). Now was she taken advantage of by being misinformed? It is certainly possible. I appreciate the information and I will certainly let her know. Maybe she has money coming back.